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PliKSKXTlCI) BY 



LITERATURE PRIMER, .^.v.^ 

by John Richard Green, M. A. 



ENGLISH. 



§xhxKim'z primers. 

Edited by JOHN RICHARD (J^REEN, M.A. 

ENGLISH 

LITERATURE. 

BY THE 

REV. STOPFORD BROOKE, M.A. 

NEW EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED. 



IVITH AN APPENDIX ON AMERICAN LIBERA TURE, 

By J. HARRIS PATTON, M. A., Ph.D., 

AUTHOR OF " FOUR HUNDRED yE.\RS OF AMERICAN HISTORY,'* 

" NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES," 

"political economy FOR AMERICAN YOUTH," ETC. 



NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO 
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. 






Copyright, 1879, 
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 

Copyright, 1882, 
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 

Copyright, 1894, by 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. 

W. P. 6 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 

PAGB 

WRITERS BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 670 

1066 5 

CHAPTER n. 
FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER'S DEATH, 

1066— 1400 22 

CHAPTER in. 

FROM CHAUCER, I40O, TO ELIZABETH, 1559 . 50 

CHAPTER IV. 

FROM 1559 TO 1603 71 

CHAPTER V. 
FROM Elizabeth's death to the restoration, 
1603 — 1660 108 

CHAPTER VI. 

FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE DEATH OF 

POPE AND SWIFT, 1660 — 1745 I25 

CHAPTER VII. 

PROSE LITERATURE FROM DEATH OF POPE 
AND SWIFT TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 
AND FROM THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO 
DEATH OF SCOTT, 1 7 45 — 1 83 2 1 45 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGE 

POETRY, FROM 1730-1832 1 58 

CHAPTER IX. 

AMERICAN LITERATURE, FROM 1 647 — 1 895 . . . 1 86 

CHAPTER X. 

AMERICAN LITERATURE (CONTINUED), FROM 

1647— 1895 208 



PRIMER 

OF 

ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

CHAPTER L 

WRITERS BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 670 — IO660 

!• Continental Poems. — The Traveller's Song. — Dear's Complaint, 
The Fii^ht at Finnesburg, — Beowulf^ before 600. 

2, Poems in tLngland.— Casdmon's/'-^r^i/'^nw^, 670- — Judith. — 

Cynewulf s Poetm-^ and others m Exeter and Verceili books. 
— Odes in A. S, Chronicle. — Song of Brunanburh, 937. 
—Fight at Maldon, 991, 

3. Prose. — BasdaV. translation of St. John^ 735- — King 

ytlfred's work during his two limes of peace ^ 880 - 893 and 
897— 901.— ^IHc's prose works, 990— 995.— Wulfstan's 
work, lu02 — 1023- — The English Chronicle, ends 1154' 

I. The History of English Literature is the 

story of what great English men and women thought 
and felt, and then wrote down in good prose and 
beautiful poetry in the English language. The story 
is a long one. It begins in England about the year 
670, it begins still earlier on the Continent, in the old 
Angle-Land, and it is still going on in the year 1879. 
Into this little book then is to be put the story of 
more than 1,200 years of the thoughts, feelings, and 
imagination of a great people. Every English man 
and woman has good reason to be proud of the work 
done by their forefathers in prose and poetry. Every 



6 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

one who can write a good book or a good song may 
say to himself, ** I belong to a noble company, which 
has been teaching and delighting the world for more 
than 1,000 years.'' And that is a fact in which 
those who write and those who read English literature 
ought to feel a noble pdde. 

2. Ihe English and the Welsh. — This litera 
ture is written in English, the tongue of our fathers. 
They Uved, while this island of ours was still called 
Britain, in Sleswick, Jutland, and Holstein ; but, either 
because they were pressed from the inland, or for 
pure love of adventure, they took to the sea, and, 
landing at various parts of Britain at various times, 
drove back, after 150 years of hard fighting, the 
Britons, whom they called Welsh, to the land now 
called Wales, and to Cornwall. It is well fur those 
who study English literature to remember that in 
these two places the Britons remained as a distinct 
race with a distinct literature of their own, because 
the stories and the poetry of the Britons crept after- 
wards into English literature and had a great influence 
upon it. The whole tale of King Arthur, of which 
English poetry and even English prose is so full, was 
a British tale. The imaginative w^ork of the conquered 
afterwards took captive their fierce conquerors. 

3. The English Tongue. — Of the language 
in which our literature is written we can say little 
here ; it is fully discussed in the Primer of English 
Grammar. Of course it has changed its look very 
much since it began to be written. The earliest form 
of our English tongue is very different from modern 
English in form, pronunciation, and appearance, and 
one must learn it almost as if it were a foreign tongu:; ; 
but still the language written in the year 700 is ihe 
same as that in which the prose of the Bible is written, 
just as much as the tree planted a hundred years ago 
is the same tree to-day. It is this sameness of lan- 
guage, as well as the sameness of national spirit, 



I.] EARLY V^RITERS TO THE CONQUEST 7 

which makes our hterature one literature for 1,200 
years. 

4. Old English Poetry was also different in 
form from what it is now. It was not written in rime, 
nor were its syllables counted. Its essential elements 
were accent and alliteration.^ Every long verse is 
divided into two half verses by a pause, and has four 
accented syllables, while the number of unaccented 
syllables is indifferent. These half verses are linked 
together by alliteration. Two accented syllables in 
the first half, and one in the second, begin with vowels 
(generally different vowels) or with the same con- 
sonant. Here is one example from a war song : — 

** ^igu wintrum geong I Wirdum maelde. 

Warrior of winiers young | With w^^rds spake." 

There is often only one alliterative letter in the first 
half verse. Sometimes there are more accents than 
four, but for the most part they do not exceed five 
in an ordinary long line. Sometimes in subjects 
requiring a more solemn or a more passionate treat- 
ment a metre is used in which unaccented syllables 
are regularly introduced, and the number of accented 
syllables also increased, and there are instances in 
which terminal rimes are ernployed. The metres are 
therefore varied, though not arbitrarily. Btit how- 
ever they are varied, they are built on the simple 
original type of four accents and three alliterative 
syllables. 

The emphasis of the words depends on the thought. 
Archaic forms and words are used, and metaphorical 
phrases and compound words, such as war-adder for 
arrow, or the whale' spath for the sea, or gold- friend 
of men for king. A groat deal of parallelism, such as 
we find in early poetry, prevails, i'he same statement 
or thought is repeated twice in different words. **Then 

^ See, for the whole of tkis, Mr. ^\n^^\!^ Ah^jIo- Saxon Reader^ 
p. xcviii. Clarendon i're^s beries. 



8 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

saw they the sea head lands, the windy walls.'* The 
poetry is nevertheless very concise and direct. Much 
more attention is paid to the goodness of the matter 
than to the form. Things are said m the shortest way ; 
there are scarcely any similes, and the metaphorical 
expressions are rare. We see in this the English 
character. 

After the Norman conquest there gradually crept in 
a French system of rimes and of metres and accent, 
which we find full-grown in Chaucer's works. But 
unrimed and alliterative verse lasted in poetry to the 
reign of John, was revived in the days of Edward III. 
and Richard II., and alliteration was blended with rime 
up to the sixteenth century. The latest form of it occurs 
in Scotland, 

5. Ttie First English Poems, — Our fore- 
fathers, while as yet they were heathen and lived on 
the Continent, made poems, and of this Conti?iental 
poeti-y we possess a few remains. The earliest per- 
haps is the Suitg of the Tra7)eller^ written, it seems 
likely, in the fifth century by a man Vv'ho had lived in 
the fourth. It is not much more than a catalogue of 
names and of the places whither the minstrel went 
with the Goths ; but where he expands, he shows so 
pleasant a pride in his profession, that he wins our 
sympathy. Dears Complaint is another of these 
poems. The writer is a bard at the court of the 
Heodenings, from whom his foe takes by craft his 
goods. He writes this complaint to comfort his 
heart. "Weland (the great smith of the Eddas) and 
the kings of the Goths suffered and bore their weird, 
and so may I, The All-wise Lord of the World work- 
eth many changes.'* This is the general argument, 
and it is the first touch of the sad fatalism which 
belongs to English poetry. The Fight at Finnesbiirg 
is the third fragment. It tells of the attack on Fin's 
palace in Friesland, and the whole story of which it 
is a part is alluded to in Beoimilf. Of all the Old 



I.] EARLY WRITERS TO THE CONQUEST. 9 

English battle descriptions, it is the most full of the 
fire and fierceness of war, and it completes, with two 
fragments of the epic of Waldhe^-e, and with Beowulf^ 
the list of the English poetry written on the Con- 
tinent. 

6. Beowulf is our Old English epic, and it recounts 
the great deeds and death of Beowulf. It may have 
been written before the English conquest of Britain, in 
the fifth century. The scenery is laid among the Goihs 
of Sweden and the Danes, and there is no mention of 
our England. It was probably wrought into an epic 
out of short poems about th6 hero, and as we have it, 
was edited, with Christian elements introduced into 
it, by a Northumbrian poet, probably in the eighth' 
century. 

The story is of Hrothgar, one of the kingly race of 
Jutland, who builds his hall, Heorot, near the sea, 
on the edge of the moorland. A monster called 
Grendel, half-human, half fiend, dwells in the moor 
close to the sea, and hating the festive noise, cariies 
off thirty of the thanes of Hrothgar and devours them. 
After twelve years of this misery, Beowulf, thane of 
Hygelac, sails from Sweden to bring help to Hrothgar, 
and at night, when Grendel breaks into the hall, 
wrestles with him, and tears away his arm, and the 
fiend flies away to die. His mother avenges his death 
the next night, and Beowulf descends into her sea- 
cave and slays her also, and then returns to Hygelac. 
The second part of the poem opens with Beowulf as 
king in his own land, ruling well, until a fire-drake, 
who guards a treasure, is robbed and comes from his 
den to harry and burn the country. The old king 
goes forth then to fight his last fight, slays the dragon, 
but dies of its uc^y breath, and the poem closes with 
the tale of his burial, burned on a lofty pyre on the 
top of Hronesnaes. 

Its social interest lies in what it tells us of the man- 
ners and customs of our forefathers before they came 



lo ENGLISH LITER A TURE, [chap. 

lo England. Their mode of life in peace and war is 
described; their ships, their towns, the scenery in 
which they lived, their feasts, amusements — we have 
the account of a whole day from morning to night — 
their women and the reverence given them, the way 
m which they faced death, in which they sang, in 
which they gave gifts and rewards. And the whole is 
told with Homeric directness and simplicity. A deep 
fatalism broods over it, but a manly spirit fills the 
fatalism. *' Sorrow not," says Beowulf to Hrothgar, 
*' it is better for every man to avenge his friend than 
to mourn greatly. Each- of us must abide his end. 
Let him who can, work high deeds ere he die. So, 
when he lies lifeless, it will be best for the warrior." 
Out of the fatalism naturally grows the stern and 
simple pathos of the poem. It is most poetical in the 
quick force with which the story is realised and pic- 
tured, and in its grave truth to humanity. The descrip- 
tions of the sea and of wild nature are instinct with the 
same spirit which fills our modern poetry, and there 
still lingers among us that nature worship of our 
fathers which in Beowulf made dreadful and lonely 
places seem dwelt in — as if the places had a spirit- 
by monstrous beings. In the creation of Grendel 
and his mother, the savage stalkers of the moor, that 
half-natural, half-supernatural world began, which, 
when men grew gentler and the country more culti- 
vated, became so beautiful as fairyland. Here is the 
description of the dwellmg- place of Grendel; — 

*' Dark is the land 
Where they dwell : windy nesses, and holds of the wolf: 
The wild path of the fen vvhere the stream of the wood 
ThroU;rh the fog of the sea-cliffs falU downward ni flood, 
'Neath the earth is the flood, and not further fron here 
Than one meles out a mile, is the irarsh of the moor, 
And the trees o'er it wavirn^ outreach and hnn^: over; 
And root Ja^t is the wood that the water o'erhelms. 
There the wonder is great that one shuddering sees 
Every ni^ht in the flood is a fire." 



I] EARLY WRITERS TO THE CONQUE:^T. ii 

The whole poem, Pagan as it is, is English to its 
very root. It is sacred to us, our Genesis, the book 
of our origins. 

7. Christianity and English Poetry. — When 
we came to Britain we were great warriors and great 
sea pirates — '' sea wolves," as a Koman poet calls us ; 
and all our poetry down to the present day is full of 
war, and still more of the sea. No nation has ever 
written so much sea-poetry. But we were more than 
mere warriors. We were a home-loving people when 
we got settled either in Sleswick or in England, and 
all our literature from the first writings to the last is 
full of domestic love, the dearness of home, and the 
ties of kinsfolk. We were a religious people, even as 
heathen, still more so when we became Christian, and 
cur poetry is as much of religion as of war. With 
Christianity a new spirit entered into English poetry. 
The war spirit did rot decay, but into the songs steals 
a softer element The fatalism is modified by the 
faith that the fate is the will of a good God. The 
pathos is not less, but it is relieved by an onlook of 
joy. The triumph over enemies is not less exulting, 
but even more, for it is the triumph of God over His 
foes that is sung by Casdmon and Cynewulf. Nor is 
the imaginative delight in legends and in the super- 
natural less. But it is now found in the legends of the 
saints, in the miracles and visions that Baeda tells of 
the Christian heroes, in fantastic allegorits of spiritual 
things, like the poems of the F/ioenix and the Whale, 
The love of nature lasted, but it dwells now rather on 
gentle than on savage scenery. The human sorrow 
for the hardness of life is more tender, and when the 
poems speak of the love of home, it is with an added 
grace. One little bit still lives for us out of the older 
world. *• Dear is the welcome guest to the PVisian 
wife when the vessel strands ; the ship is come and 
her husband to his house, her own provider. And she 
welcomes him in, washes his weedy garment, and 



12 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

clothes him anew. It is pleasant on shore to him 
whom his love awaits." If that was the soft note of 
home in a pagan land, it was softer still when Christi- 
anity had mellowed manners. Yet, with all this, the 
faith of Woden still influences the Christian song. 
Christ, is not only the Saviour, but the Hero who 
goes forth against the dragon. His overthrow of 
the fiends is described in much the same terms as 
that of Beowulf's wrestling with Grendel. ^' Bitterly 
grim, gripped them in his wrath.'' The death of 
Christ, at which the universe trembles and weeps, is 
like the death of Balder. I'he old poetry penetrated 
the new, but the spirit of the new transformed that of 
the old. 

8. Caedmon. — The poem of Beowulf has the 
grave Teutonic power, but it is not native to our soil. 
It is not the first true English poem. That is the 
work of CiEDMON, and it was made in Northumbria. 
The story of it, as told by Baeda, proves that the 
making of songs was comn:on at the time. Caedmon 
was a servant to the monastery of Hild, an abbess of 
royal blood, at Whitby in Yorkshire. He was some- 
what aged when the gift of song came to him, and he 
knew nothing of the art of verse, so that at the feasts 
when for the sake of mirth all sang in turn he left the 
table. One night, having done so and gone to the 
stables, for he had care of the cattle, he fell asleep, 
and One came to him in vision and said, *' Caedmon, 
sing me some song/' And he answered, ^' I cannot 
sing; for this cause I left the feast and came hither." 
Then said the other, '' However, you shall sing." 
'/What shall I sing?" he replied. *' Sing the begin- 
ning of created things," answered the other. Where- 
upon he began to sing verses to the praise of God, 
and, avA^aking, remembered what he had sung, and 
added more in verse worthy of God. In the morning 
he came to the steward, and told him of the gift he 
had received, and, being brought to Hild, was ordered 



r.] EARLY WRITERS TO THE CONQUEST \7, 

to tell his dream before learned men, that they might 
give judgment whence Ins verses came. And when 
they had heard, they aU said that heavenly grace had 
been conferred on him by our Lord. 

9. Csedmon s Poem, written about 670, is for 
us the beginning of English poetry in England, and 
the story of its origm ought to be loved by us. Nor 
should we fail to reverence the place where it began. 
Above the small and. land-locked harbour of Whitby, 
rises and juts out towards the sea the dark cliff 
where Hild's miOnastery stood, looking out over the 
German Ocean. It is a wild, wind-swept upland, and 
the sea beats furiously beneath, and standing there 
we feel that it is a fitting birthplace for the poetry 
of the sea-ruhng nation. Nor is the verse of the first 
poet without the stormy note of the scenery among 
which it was written, nor without the love of the stars 
or the dread of the waste land that Csedmon saw from 
Whitby Head. 

Csedmon paraphrased the history of the Old and 
New Testament. He sang the creation of the world, 
the history of Israel, the book of Daniel, the whole 
story of the life of Christ, future judgment, purga- 
tory, hell, and lieaven. All who heard it thought 
it divinely given. "Others after him," says Bseda, 
" tried to make religious poems, but none could vie 
with him, for he did not learn the art of poetry from 
men, nor of men, but from God/' 

The interest of the poem is not found in the telHng 
of the Scripture story, but in those parts of it which 
are the invention of Caedmon, in the drawing of the 
characters, in the passages instinct with the genius of 
our race, and in those which reveal the individuality 
of the poet. The fall of the angels and the Hell, and 
the proud and angry cry of Satan against God from 
his bed of chains, are full of fierce war-rage, while the 
contrasts drawn between the peace of heaven and the 
swart horror of hell have the same kind of pathos as 



14 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

Milton's work on the same subject. The pleasure of 
the northern imagination in swiftness and in joy is as 
well marked as its pleasure in wild freedom, in dark 
pride, and in revenge. The burst of fierce and joyous 
vengeance when die fiend succeeds in his temptation 
is magnificent. There is true dramatic povvtr in the 
dialogue between Eve and Satan, and between Eve 
and Adam, and there is in the whole scene of the 
temptation a subtle quality of thought which we do 
not expect. It is characteristic of Old- England that 
the motives of the woman for eating the fruit are all 
good, and the passionate and tender conscientiousness 
of the scene of the repentance is equally characteristic 
of the gentler and religious side of the Teutonic 
character. '' Dark and tru^ and tender is the North." 
This is the really great part of the poem. The rest, 
with the exception of the Flood, the Battle of Abraham 
with Chedorlaomer, and the passage of the Red Sea, 
is so dull that I believe the work of the original poet 
was filled up by other hands. ^ However that may be, 
in this ])oem, our native English poetry begins with a 
religious poem, and it gave birth to many children. 

]o. English Poetry after Csedmon was partly 
secular, but chiefly religious. The secular poetry was 
sung about the country, but the increase of monasteries 
where men of letters lived, naturally made the written 
poetry religious. What remains is chiefly contained in 
two collections, the *^ Exeter Book" and the " Vercelli 
Book," both named from the places where the manu- 
scripts now are preserved. 

During the short period when literature flourished 
in the South at the end of the seventh century, Eng- 
lish poetry is there connected with the name of 
Ealdhelm. a young man when Caedmon died, and 

^ Sievers has lately tried to phow (''conclusively," says Mr. 
Sweet) that a <rr«-at portion <>f ilie Puraphmse i- a translation 
from an old Saxon original, perhaps by the author of the 
Heiiand, 



I.] EARLY WRITERS TO THE CONQUEST. 15 

afterwards Abbot of Malmesbury, he united the song- 
maker to the rehgious poet. He was a skilled musi- 
cian, and it is said that he had not his equal in the 
making or singing of English verse. His songs were 
popular in King Alfred's time, and a pretty story 
tells, that when the traders came into the town on the 
Sunday, he, in the character of a gleeman, stood on 
the bridge and sang them songs, with which he inter- 
mingled Scripture texts and teaching. 

But the English poetry which died in the South 
grew rapidly in Northumbria after Caedmon's death. 
We do not know the date nor the writer of Judith^ 
but it belongs to the best time. It was found in the 
same MS. as Beowulf, and of the twelve books in 
which it was originally written, we only possess the 
three last, which tell of the banquet of Holofernes, 
his death, and the attack of the Jews on the Assyrian 
camp. The language is carefully wrought, the verse 
varied and musical, the action dramatic, and swiftly 
brought to its conclusion. It is really a poem of war, 
and full of the fire of war. 

1 1. Cyne wulf, the greatest of these northern poets, 
has left us both secular and religious poems. His 
name is given in a few of the pieces in the Exeter and 
Vercelli books. But it is very probable that he was 
the writer of several of the anonymous poems. He 
seems to have been a minstrel at the court of one of 
the Northumbrian kings, and to have been exiled by 
one of the wars of the eighth century. He was then, 
he says, a frivolous and sinful man, and during this 
period he wrote the lyric pieces attributed to him. 
Of these the Wandere7% and the Wife's Complaijit^ 
and the Rum (if we may allot this lovely fragment 
to him), are full of regret and yearning, in exile 
and solitude, for the lost beauty and happiness of his 
world, while the Seafarer breathes the same fasci- 
nation for the sea which filled the veins of our fore- 
fathers while they sang and sailed, and which is 



X6 ^ ENGLISH LITER A TURE, [c hap. 

Strangely re-echoed, even to the very note of Cyne- 
wulf s song, in Tennyson's Sailor Boy. The Riddles^ 
of which this poet wrote a great number, show how 
closely and with what love he observed natural beauty. 
But a change came over him in his old age, and he 
devoted himself wholly to religious poetry. The 
Dream of the Cross, in which he teils the vision which 
wrought this change, is a piece of great beauty. It is 
prefixed to the Ele?ie, or the Fmding of the Cross, 
which with the Crist and the Passion of St, Juliana, 
are Cynewulfs hymns on the threefold coming of 
Christ. The evidence of style is rehed on to attri- 
bute also to Cynewulf the Life of St. Gudlac, (two 
poems, on the Life and Death, put into one, the Life 
probably not by Cynewulf), the descriptive poem of 
the Phoejiix, and the lyrics mentioned above. He 
may also have written the A7idreas, which relates 
the adventures of St. Andrew among the cannibal 
Marmedonians. 

Didactic and Gno?nic Poems, 77ietrical trafislations of 
the Psalms, and metrical hymns and prayers, fill up 
the rest of the Exeter and VercelU books. One fine 
fragment in which Death speaks to man, and describes 
the low and hateful and doorless house of which he 
keeps the key, does not belong to these books, and 
with the few English verses Baeda made when he was 
dying, tells us how stern was the thought of our 
fathers about the grave. But stern as these fragments 
are, the Old-English religious poetry always passes on 
to dwell on a brighter world. Thus we are told, in 
the Ode in the Saxon Chronicle, that King Eadgar 
*' left this weak life, and chose for himself another light, 
sweet and fair." 

12. The War Poetry of England at this time 
in Northumbria was probably as plentiful as the 
religious, but it was not likely to be written down by 
the men of letters in the monasteries. It is only when 
literature travelled south w^ards in ^Elfred's time, that 



I.] EARLY WRITERS TO THE CONQUEST. 17 

we find any written war songs, and of these there are 
only two, the Song of Bnmanburh, 938, and the So?ig 
of the Fight at Maldon, 998. They are noble poems, 
the fitting sources, both in their short and rapid lines, 
and in their simplicity and force, of such war songs as 
the Battle of the Baltic and the Charge of the Light) 
Brigade. The first, composed expressly for the 
Chronicle^ and inserted in it instead of the usual prose 
entry, describes the fight of King u^thelstan with 
Anlaf the Dane. From morn, till night they fought 
till they were "weary of red battle, in the hard hand 
play," till five young kings and seven earls of Anlaf s 
host lay in that fighting place ** quieted by swords,'' 
and the Northmen fled, and only *^ the screamers 
of war were left behind, the black raven and the 
eagle to feast on the white flesh, and the greedy 
batde-hawk, and the grey beast the wolf in the 
wood/' The second is the story of the death of 
Brihtnoth, an ealdorman of Northumbria, in battle 
against the Danes. It contains 690 lines. In the 
speeches of heralds and warriors before the fight, in 
the speeches and single combats of the chiefs, in the 
loud laugh and mock which follow a good death- 
stroke, in the rapid rush of the verse when the battle 
is joined, the poem, though broken, as Homer's verse 
is not, is Homeric. In the rude chivalry which dis- 
dains to take vantage ground of the Danes, in the way 
in which the friends and churls of Brihtnoth die one 
by one, avenging their lord, keeping faithful the tie of 
kinship and clanship, in the cry not to yield a foot's 
breadth of earth, in the loving sadness with which 
home is spoken of, the poem is English to the core. 
And in the midst of it all, like a song from another 
land, but a song heard often in English fights from 
then till now, is the last prayer of the great earl, 
when dying he commends his soul with thankfulness 
to God. 
Two short odes, among several small poems 



1 8 ENGLISH LI TERA TURE. [chap. 

inserted in the Chronicle, one on the deliverance of 
five cities from the Danes by King Eadmund, 942 ; 
and another on the coronation of King Eadgar, are 
the last records of a war poetry which naturally de- 
cayed when the English were trodden down by the 
Normans. When Tai liefer rode into battle at Hastings, 
singing songs of Roland and Charlemagne, he sang 
more than the triumph of the Norman over the Eng- 
lish ; he sang the victory for a time of French Romance 
over Old- English poetry. 

13. Old English Prose. — It is pleasant to think 
that I may not unfairly make English prose begin 
wdth B^DA. He was born about a.d. 673, and was, 
like C?edmon, a Northumbrian. After 683, he spent 
his life at Jarrow, "in the same monastery," he says, 
^' and while attentive to the rule of mine order, and 
the service of the Church, my constant pleasure lay 
in learning, or teaching, or writing." He enjoyed that 
pleasure for many years, for his quiet life was long, 
and his toil was unceasing from boyhood till he 
died. Forty-five works prove his industry ; and their 
fame over the whole of learned Europe during his 
time proves their value. His learning w^as as various as 
it was great. All that the world then knew of science, 
music, rhetoric, medicine, arithmetic, astronomy, and 
physics were brought together by him ; and his life was 
as gentle, and himself as loved, as his w^ork was great. 
His books were written in Latin, and with these we 
have nothing to do, but his was the first effort to 
make English prose a literary language, for his last 
work was a Tjanslation of the Gq^s^e^^^ as 

almost his last words were in English verse. In the 
story of his death told by his disciple Cuthbert is 
the first record of English prose writing. When the last 
day came, the dying man called his scholars to him 
that he might dictate more of his translation. " There 
is still a chapter wanting," said the scribe, '*and it is 
hard for thee to question thyself longer." '' It is easily 



1.] EARLY WRITERS TO THE CONQUEST 19 

done," said Baeda, *'take thy pen and write quickly." 
Through the day they wrote, and when evening fell, 
'' There is yet one sentence unwritten, dear master," 
said the youth. ^' Write it quickly," said the master. 
'' It is finished now." " Thou sayest truth," was the 
reply, " all is finished now." He sang the ^^ Glory to 
God " and died. It is to that scene that English prose 
looks back as its sacred source, as it is in the great- 
ness and variety of Baeda's Latin work that English 
literature strikes its key-note. 

i4..iElfre4's Work.— When Baeda died, North- 
umbria was the home of prose literature. Though as 
yet written mostly in Latin, it was a wide-spread 
literature. Wilfrid of York and Benedict Biscop had 
founded libraries, and established far and wide a 
number of monastic schools. Six hundred scholars 
gathered round Baeda ere he died, and Alcuin, a pupil 
of Egbert, Archbishop of York, carried in 782 to the 
court of Charles the Great the learning and piety of 
England. But the northern literature began to decay 
towards the end of the eighth century, and after 866 
it was, we may say, blotted out by the Danes. The 
long battle with these invaders was lost in Northum- 
bria, but it was gained for a time by Alfred the Great 
in Wessex; and with Alfred's literary work, learn- 
ing changed its seat from the north to the south. 
Alfred's writings and translations, being in English 
and not in Latin, make him, since Baeda's work is 
lost, the true father of EngUsh prose. As Whitby 
is the cradle of English poetry, so is Winchester of 
English prose. At Winchester the King took the 
English tongue and made it the tongue in which 
history, philosophy, law and religion spoke to the Eng- 
lish people. No work was ever done more eagerly or 
more practically. He brought scholars from different 
parts of the world. He set up schools in his monas- 
teries ** where every free-born youth, who has the 
means, shall attend to his book till he can read 



20 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

English writing perfectly/' He presided over a school 
in his own court. He made himself a master of a 
literary English style, and he did this that he might 
teach his people. He translated the popular manuals 
of the time into English, but he edited them with 
large additions of his own, needful as he thought, for 
English use. He gave his nation moral philosophy in 
Boethius's Consolations of Philosophy ; a universal 
history, with geographical chapters of his own,^ in the 
History of Orosius ; a history of England in BcpJa's 
History, giving to some details a West-Saxon form ; 
and a religious handbook in the Pastoral Pule of 
Pope Gregory. We do not quite know whether he 
worked himself at the English or Anglo-Saxon Chro- 
nicle, but at least it was in his reign that this chronicle 
rose out of meagre lists into a full narrative of events. 
To him, then, we English look back as the father of 
English prose literature. 

15. The Later Old English Prose.— The 
impulse he gave soon fell away, but it was revived 
under King Eadgar the Peaceful, whose seventeen 
years of government (958-75) were the most pros- 
perous and glorious of the West-Saxon Empire. 
Under him ^thelwald, Bishop of Winchester, made 
it his work to keep up English schools and to 
translate Latin works into English, and Archbishop 
Dunstan carried out the same pursuits with his own 
vigorous intelligence, ^thelwald's school sent out 
from it a scholar and abbot named ^lfric. He 
is the first large translator of the Bible, turning into 
EngUsh the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and part of 
Job. The rest of his numerous works are some of 
the best models we possess of the simple literary 
English of the beginning of the eleventh century. The 

^ The Voyas^es of Ohthere and Wulfstan^ original insertions of 
-Alfred into Orosius' History, will be found in Mr. Sweet's ^«^/^- 
Saxon Reader, They are * ' of the highest literary and philological 
value as specimens of the natural prose of Alfred." 



I.] EARLY WRITERS TO THE CONQUEST. 21 

Ho7niUes we owe to him, and his Lives of the Saints are 
written in a classic prose, and his Colloquy^ afterwards 
edited by another ^Ifric, may be called the first English- 
Latin dicuonary. But this revival had no sooner begun 
to take root than the Northmen came again in force 
upon the land and conquered it. We have in Wulfstan's 
(Archbishop of York, 1002-2^) Address to the English^ 
a terrible picture, written in impassioned prose, of the 
demoralisation caused by the mroads of the Danes. 
During the long interweaving of Danes and English 
together under Danish kings from 1013 to 1042, no 
English literature arose. It was towards the quiet 
reign of Edward the Confessor it again began to live. 
But no sooner was it born than the Norman invasion 
repressed, but did not quench its hfe. 

16. The English Chronicle. — One great monu- 
ment, however, of old English prose lasts beyond the 
Conquest. It is the English Chronicle, and in it our 
literature is continuous from Alfred to Stephen. At 
first it w^as nothing but a record of the births and 
deaths of bishops and kings, and was probably a 
West- Saxon Chronicle. Among these short notices 
there is, however, one tragic story, of Cynewulf and 
Cyneheard, 755, so rude in style, and so circum- 
stantial, that it is probably contemporary with the 
events themselves. If so, it is the oldest piece of 
historical prose in any Teutonic tongue. More than 
a hundred years later Alfred took up the Chronicle, 
edited it from various sources, added largely to it from 
Bseda, and raised it to the dignity of a national history. 
The narrative of Alfred's wars with the Danes, written, 
it is likely, by himself at the end of his reign, enables 
us to estimate the great weight Alfred himself had 
in literature. ** Compared with this passage,'^ says 
Mr. Earle, *^ every other piece of prose, not in these 
Chronicles merely, but throughout the whole range of 
extant Saxon literature, must assume a secondary rank.*^ 
After Alfred's reign, and that of his son Eadward, 



22 ENGLISH LITER A I URE. [chap. 

901-925, the Chronicle becomes scanty, but songs and 
odes are inserted in it. In the reign of ^thelred and 
during the Danish kings its fulness returns, and grow- 
ing by additions from various quarters, it continues to 
be our great contemporary authority in English history 
till 1 154, when it abruptly closes with the death of 
Stephen. '^ It is the first history of any Teutonic 
people in their own language ; it is the earliest and the 
most venerable monument of English prose.^' In it 
Old English poetry sang its last song, in its death Old 
English prose dies. It is not till the reign of John 
that English poetry m any form but that of short 
poems appears again in the Brut of Layamon. It is 
not till the reign of Edward III. that original English 
prose again begins. 



CHAPTER 11. 

FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER's DEATH, 

1066-1400. 

Layamon's Brut, 1205^ — Ormin's Ormuhim, 1215. — Sir 
John Mandeville's Travels, 1356- — William Langland's 
Vision concerning Piers the Plowman, 3 texts, 1362, 77, 93. 
John Wyclif's Translation of the Bible, 1380. — John 
Gower's Confessio A mantis, 1393 — 4- 

Geoffrey Chaucer, born 1340, died 1400. — Dethe of Blaunche 
the Duchesse, 1369- — Troylus and Creseide. — Parlament 
of Foules. — Compleynt of Mars. — A net id a and Arcite, — 
Hous of Tame, 1374 — 1384- — Legende of Good Women, 
1385. — Prose Treatise on Astrolabe, 1391- — Canterbury 
Tales, 1373 to 1400- 

17. General Outline. — The invasion of Britain 
by the English made the island, its speech, and its 
literature, English. The invasion of England by the 
Danes left our speech and literature still EngUsh. 
The Danes were of our stock and tongue, and we 
absorbed them. The invasion of England by the 



II.] FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER, 23 

Normans seemed likely to crush the English people, 
to root out their literature, and even to threaten their 
speech. But that which happened to the Danes hap- 
pened to the Normans also, and for the same reason. 
They were originally of like blood to the Enghsh, 
and of like speech ; and though during their settle- 
ment in Normandy they had become French in 
manner and language, and their literature French, 
yet the old blood prevailed in the end. The Nor- 
man felt his kindred with the English tongue and 
spirit, became an Englishman, and left the French 
tongue to speak and write in English. We absorbed 
the Normans, and w^e took into our literature and 
speech some French elements they had brought with 
them. It was a process slower in literature than it 
was in the political history, but it began from the 
pohtical struggle. Up to the time of Henry II. the 
Norman troubled himself but litde about the English 
tongua. But when French foreigners came pouring 
into the land in the train of Henry and his sons, the 
Norman alHed himself with the Englishman against 
these foreigners, and the English tongue began to 
rise into importance. Its literature grew slowly, but 
as quickly as most of the literatures of Europe, and 
it never ceased to grow. We are carried on to the 
year 1154 by the prose of the Enghsh Chronicle. 
There are old English homilies which we may date 
from 1 1 20. The so-called Moral Ode, an English 
riming poem, was compiled about the year 1160, 
and is found in a volume of homilies of the same 
date. In the reign of Henry II., the old Southern- 
EngHsh Gospels of King ^thelred's time were modern- 
ised after 200 years or less of use. The Sayings of 
Alfred, written in English for the English, were com- 
posed about the year 1200. About the same date the 
old English Charters of Bury St. Edmunds were trans- 
lated into the dialect of the shire, and now, early in 
the thirteenth century, at the central time of the strife 
8 



24 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

between English and foreign elements, after the death 
of Richard L, the Brict of Layamon and the Ormulum 
come forth within ten years of each other to prove 
the continuity, the survival, and the victory of the 
English tongue. When the patriotic struggle closed 
in the reign of Edward I., Enghsh literature had 
again risen, through the song, the sermon, and 
the poem, into importance, and was written by a 
people made up of Norman and Englishman welded 
into one by the fight against the foreigner. But 
though the foreigner was driven out, his Hterature in- 
fluenced, and continued to influence, the new Eng- 
lish poetry. The poetry, we say, for in this revival 
our literature was chiefly poetical. Prose, with but 
few exceptions, was written in Latin. 

i8. Religious and Story-telling Poetry are 
the two main streams into which this poetical litera- 
ture divides itself. The reHgious poetry is entirely 
English in spirit, and a poetry of the people, from the 
Ormidum of Ormin, 12 15, to the V^ision of Piers the 
Plowman, in which poem the distinctly EngUsh poetry 
reached its truest expression in 1362. The story-telling 
poetry is English at its beginning, but becomes more 
and more influenced by tlie romantic poetry of France, 
and in the end grows in Chaucer's hands into a poetry 
of the court and of high society, a hterary in contrast 
with a popular poetry. But even in this the spirit of 
the poetry is English, though the manner is French. 
Chaucer becomes less French and even less Italian 
in manner, till at last we find him entirely English in 
feeling — though he borrows some of his subjects 
from foreign stories — in the Canterbury Tales^ the 
best example of English story-telling we possess. 
The struggle then of England against the foreigner 
to become and remain England finds its parallel 
in the struggle of English poetry against the influ- 
ence of foreign poetry to become and remain Eng- 
lish. Both struggles were long and wearisome, but 



n. FROM THE CO i\ QUEST TO CHAUCER. ^5 

in both England was triumphant. She became a 
nation, and she won a national literature. It is the 
course of this struggle we have now to trace along 
the two lines already laid dov/n — the poetry of re- 
ligion and the poetry of story-telling ; but to do 
so we must begin in both instances with the Norman 
Conquest. 

19. The Religious Poetry. — The religious re- 
vival of the eleventh century was strongly felt in 
Normandy, and both the knights and Churchmen who 
came to England with William the Conqueror and 
during his son's reign, were founders of abbeys, 
from which, as centres of learning and charity, 
the country was civilised. In Henry I.'s reign the 
religion of England was further quickened by mis- 
sionary monks sent by Bernard of Clairvaux. London 
was stirred to rebuild St. Paul's, and abbeys rose 
in all the well-watered valleys of the North. The 
English citizens of London and the English peasants 
in the country received a new religious life from the 
foreign noble and the foreign monk, and both were 
drawn together through a common worship. When 
this took place a desire arose for religious handbooks 
in the English tongue. Onmn^sjOimu/^ is a type of 
these. We may date it, though not precisely, at 1215, 
the date of the Great Charter. It is entirely English, 
not five French words are to be found in it. It is a 
metrical version of the service of each day with the 
addition of a sermon in verse. The book was called 
Ormulum, " for this, that Orm it wrought." I^_ 
marks . the rise of English religious literature^^ and 
its religion is simple and rustic. Orm's ideal monk 
is to be '^ a very pure man7 and altogether without 
property, except that he shall be found in simple 
meat and clothes." He will have "a hard and stiff 
and rough and heavy life to lead. All his heart 
and desire ought to be aye toward heaven, and 
his Master well to serve." This was English religion 



26 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

in the country at this date. It was continued in 
English writing by the Ancren Riwle — the Rule of 
the Anchoresses — written about 1220, in the Dorset- 
shire dialect. The Genesis and Exodus^ a biblical poem 
of about 1250, was made by the pious writer to make 
Christian men as glad as birds at the dawning for , 
the story of salvation. A Northumbrian Psalter of/ 
1250 is only one example out of many devotional 
pieces, homilies, metrical creeds, hymns to the Virgin, 
which, with the metrical Lives of the Saints (a large 
volume, the lives translated from Latin or French 
prose into English verse), carry the religious poetry up 
to 1300. 

20. Literature and the Friars. — There was 
little religion in the towns, but this was soon changed. 
In 1 22 1 the Mendicant Friars came to England, and 
they chose the towns for their work. The first Friars 
who learnt EngHsh that they might preach to the 
people were foreigners, and spoke French. Many 
English Friars studied in Paris, and came back to 
England, able to talk to Norman noble and English 
peasant. Their influence, exercised both on Norman 
and English, was thus a mediatory and uniting one, 
and Normans as well as English now began to write 
religious works in English. In 1303 Robert Manning of 
Brunne translated a French poem, the Manual of Sins 
(written thirty years earlier by William of Waddington), 
under the title of Handlyng Syn7ie, William of 
Shoreham translated the whole of the Psalter into 
English prose about 1327, and wrote religious poems. 
The Cursor Mundi^ written about 1320, and thought 
''the best book of all" by men of that time, was a 
metrical version of the Old and New Testament, inter- 
spersed^ as was the Handlyng Synne, with legends of 
saints. Some scattered Sermons, and in 1340 the 
Ayenbite of Inwyt i^^mox^Q of Conscience), translated 
from the French, mark how English p?vse was rising 
through religion. About the same year Richard Rolle 



II.] FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER. 27 

of Hampole wrote in Latin and in Northumbrian 
English for the " unlearned," a poem called the Pricke 
of Conscience, and some prose treatises. This poem is 
the last reHgious poem of any importance before the 
Vision of Piers the Plowman, At its date, 1340, the 
religious influence of the Friars was swiftly decaying. 
They had been attacked twenty years before it, in a 
poem of 1320, and twenty years after it, in 1360, their 
influence was wholly gone. In IHersPlow7?ia7i (i362^___ 
the protest Langland makes for purity of life Is also a 
protest against the foul life and the hypocrisy of the 
Friars. In that poem, as we shall see, the whole of the 
popular English religion of the time of Chaucer is re- 
presented. In it also the natural, unliterary, country 
English is best represented. It brings us up in the 
death of its author to the year 1400, the same year 
in which Chaucer died. 

21. History and the Story-telling Poetry. — 
The Normans brought an historical taste with them 
to England, and created a valuable historical litera- 
ture. It was written in Latin, and we have nothing 
to do with it till story-telling grew out of it in the 
time of the Great Charter. But it was in itself of such 
importance that a few things must be said about it. 

(i) The men who wrote it were called Chron- 
iclers. At first they were mere annalists — that is, they 
jotted down the events of year after year without 
any attempt to bind them together into a connected 
whole. But afterwards, from the time of Henry I., 
another class of men arose, who wrote, not in scat- 
tered monasteries, but in the Court. Living at the 
centre of political life, their histories were written in a 
philosophic spirit, and wove into a whole the growth 
of law and national life and the story of affairs abroad. 
They are our great authorities for the history of these 
times. They begin with Williajn of Alalmesbury, 
whose book ends in 1142, and die out after Matthew 
Paris, 1^235 — 73. Historical literature, written in 



28 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

prose in England, is only represented after the death 
of Henry III. by a few dry Latin annalists till it rose 
again in modern English prose in 15 13, when Sir 
Thomas M ore's Life of Edward V, and Usur patio Ji of 
Richard ILL, is said to have been written. 

(2) A distinct English Feeling soon sprang up 
among these Norman historians. English patriotism 
was far from having died among the English them- 
selves. The Sayings of Alfred were written in 
English by the English. These and some ballads, 
as well as the early English war-songs, interested the 
Norman historians and were collected by them. Wil- 
liam of Malmesbury, who was born of English and 
Norman parents, has sympathies with both peoples, 
and his history marks how both were becoming one 
nation. The same welding together of the conquered 
and the conquerors is seen in the others till we come 
to Matthew Paris, whose view of history is entirely 
that of an Englishman. When he wrote, Norman 
noble and English yeoman, Norman abbot and Eng- 
lish priest, were, and are in his pages, one in blood 
and one in interests. 

22. English Story-telling grew out of this his- 
torical literature. There was a Welsh priest at the 
court of Henry L, called Geoffrey of Monmouth^ 
who, inspired by the Genius of romance, composed 
twelve short books, which he playfully called History. 
He had been given, he said, an ancient Welsh book 
to translate which told in verse the history of Britain 
from the days when Brut, the great-grandson of 
• iiEneas, landed on its shores, through the whole his- 
tory of King Arthur and his Round Table down to 
Cadwallo, a Welsh king who died in 689. The Latin 
"translation " he made of this apocryphal book he com- 
pleted in 1 147. The real historians were angry at 
the fiction, and declared that throughout the whole of 
It '^he had lied saucily and shamelessly." It was 
mdeed only a clever putting together and invention 



11.] FPOM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER. 29 

of a number of Welsh legends, but it was the beginning 
of story-telling in our land. Every one who read it 
was delighted with it ; it made, as we should say, a 
sensation, and as much on the Continent as in Eng- 
land. In it the Welsh, as I have said, invaded 
English literature, and their tales have never since 
ceased to Hve in it. They charm us as much in 
Tennyson's Idylls of the King as they charmed us in 
the days of Henry I. But the stories Geoffrey of 
Monmouth told were in Ladn prose. They were put 
first into French verse by Geoffrey Gaimar for the wife 
of his patron, Ralph FitzGilbert, a northern baron. 
They got afterwards to France and, added to from 
Breton legends, were made into a poem and decked 
out with the ornaments of French romance. In that 
form they came back to England as the work of Wace, 
a Norman trouveur, the writer also of the Roman de 
\Rou^ who called his poem the Brut, and completed 
^it in 115s, shortly after the accession of Henry II. 
23. Layamon's '\ Brut.*' — In this French form 
the story drifted through England, and at last falling 
into the hands of an English priest in Worcestershire, 
he resolved to tell it in English verse to his country- 
men, and doing so became the writer of our first 
English poem after the Conquest. We may roughly 
say that its date is 1205, ten years or so before the 
Orinuhcm was written, ten years before the Great 
Charter. It is plain that its composition, though it 
told a Welsh story, was looked on as a patriotic work 
by the writer. *^ There was a priest in the land,'* he 
writes of himself, " whose name was Layamon ; he 
was son of Leovenath : May the Lord be gracious 
unto him ! He dwelt at Earnley, a noble church on 
the bank of Severn, near Radstone, where he read 
books. It came in mind to him and in his chiefest 
thought that he would tell the noble deeds of England, 
what the men were named, and whence they came, 
who first had English land." And it was truly of great 



so ,ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

importance. The poem opened to the imagination of 
the EngHsh people an immense, though a fabled, past 
for the history of the island they dwelt in, and made 
a common bond of interest between Norman and 
Englishman. Though chiefly rendered from the 
French, there are not fifty French words in its 30,000 
lines. The old English alliterative metre is kept up 
with a few rare rimes. As we read the short quick 
lines in which the battles are described, as we listen 
to the simple metaphors, and feel the strong, rude 
character of the poem, we are put in mind of Caedmon ; 
and what Caedmon was to early English poetry, 
Layamon is to EngHsh poetry after the Conquest. He 
is the first of the new singers. 

24. Story-telling grows French in form. — 
After an interval the desire for story-telhng increased 
in England. I'he Romance of Sir Tristra7?t was, it is 
supposed, versified in 1270, and many other tales of 
Arthur's Knights, and some stories which had an 
English origin, such as the lays of Havelok the Dane 
and of King Horn (both about 1280), were translated 
from the French, while Edward I. was makmg Norman 
and English into one people. The Ro7nance of King 
Alexander^ originally a Greek work, was, at the same 
date, adapted from the French into English, and about 
1300 Robert of Gloucester wrote his Riming Chronicle, 
a history of England from Brutus to the reign of 
Edward I.^ As the dates grow nearer to 1300, seven 
years before the death of Edward I., the amount of 
French words increases, and the French romantic 
manner of telling stories is more and more marked. 

^ I may mention in this place that between 1327 and 1338, 
Robert of Brunne whose Handlyng Sinne is spoken of at p. 26, 
made another English Chronicle, translating the first part from 
Wace's Brut^ p. 29, and the second part from Peter Langtoft's 
French Metrical Chronicle, It is a fresh instance of the eager- 
ness with which French work was now got into Engli.-h, for 
Langtoft, a Canon of Bridlington, had only written his Chronicle 
a few years before. 



II.] FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER, 31 

In the Lay of Havelok the spirit and descriptions of 
the poem still resemble old English work ; in the 
Roma7ice of Alexa7ider^ on the other hand, the natural 
landscape, the conventional introductions to the parts, 
the gorgeous descriptions of pomps, and armour, and 
cities, the magic wonders, the manners, and feasts, and 
battles of chivalry, the love passages, are all steeped 
in the colours of French romantic poetry. Now this 
romance was adapted by a Frenchman about the year 
1200. It took therefore nearly a century before the 
French romantic manner of poetry could be natural- 
ised in English; and it was naturaUsed, curious to 
say, at the very time when England as a nation had 
lost its French elements and become entirely English. 

25. Cycles of Komance.— At this time, then, the 
French romance of a hundred years earlier was popu- 
larised in England. There were four great romantic 
stories. The first was that of Kin^ Arthur and the 
Round Table, and Geoffrey of Monmouth introduced 
it into England, p. 28. Walter Map, a councillor 
and friend of Henry IL, and aftervv^ards Archdeacon 
of York, took up Geoffrey's work, and threw into form, 
in Latin, all the Arthur legends. He invented and 
added to them the story of the Quest of the Graal 
(the Holy Dish that contained the sacramental blood 
of Christ and the Paschal Lamb), and made it their 
centre. By this invention he bound all the Arthur 
legends up with the highest doctrine of the Church. 
Afterwards he added the Morte d' Arthur. The im- 
pulse thus given was continued at home and abroad 
in the invention of new Arthurian stories, and by 
1300 they were all popular in England and sung and 
made into English verse. 

The second romantic story was that of Charlemagne 
and his twelve peers. Forged about 11 10 in the 
name of Archbishop Turpin, it excited interest in the 
Crusades by inventing a visit of Charlemagne's to the 
Holy Sepulchre and various stories and battles of his 



32 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

peers with the Saracens in Spain. Of the number of 
romances which grew out of this subject, we EngUsh 
have only six poems or fragments of poems, one of 
Roland, one of Otuivell, one of Charlemagne and 
Roland, a Siege of Milan, Sir Ferumbras in three or 
four different versions, and the humorous Rouf Coill- 
yean. Their dates extend over the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries. 

The third romantic story arose after the Crusades, 
and is that of the Life of Alexander, already alluded 
to as coming from the East. Its romantic wonders, 
fictions, and magic, partly derived from the Arabian 
books about Eskander (Alexander), were doubled by 
the imagination and coloured with all the romance of 
chivalry ; and the story became so common in Eng- 
land that '* every wight that hath discrecioune/' says 
Chaucer, had heard of Alexander's fortune. 

The fourth romantic story was that of the Siege of 
Troy. Two Latin pieces, bearing the names of Dares 
Phrygius and of Didys Cretensis, composed in the 
decline of Latin literature, were taken up by Guido di 
Colonna of Messina about 1260, and with fabulous and 
romantic inventions of his own, and with additions 
woven into them from the Theban and Argonautic 
stories (so that Jason and Hercules and Theseus were 
incorporated into romance), were made into a great 
Latin story in fifteen books. It does not seem to have 
much entered mto English literature till Chaucer's 
time, but Chaucer and Lydgate both used it. 

These were the four great Romantic cycles, which 
we popularised from the French. But the desire 
for romances was not satisfied with these. About 
the reign of Edward I. a romance of Richard 
Coeur de Lion, and about 1360 the Romance of 
William and the Werwolf, were both translated from 
the French. Chaucer mentions Sir Bevis of South- 
ampton^ Sir Guy of Warwick, the Squijx of Low 
Degree, Ypotis a theological story, Sidrac, and others. 



II.] FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER. 33 

There were also Syr Degore (L'Egare), King Robert of 
Sicily^ the King of Tars, Ipomydon, Octavian the Ein- 
perour, &c., ail taken from the French, and made 
English in the times of the Edwards. The country 
was therefore swarming with French tales, and its 
poetic imagination with the fancies and the fables of 
French chivalry. Finally, the influence of this French 
school in England is seen in the stories of Gower, and 
in the earher poems of Chaucer. It lasted on, after 
Chaucer's death, in such poems as the Court of 
Love, written about 1470, and wrongly attributed to 
Chaucer. It came to its height in the translation of 
the Romaunt of the Rose, the crowning effort also of 
French romance, but of a new type of romance, that 
of the Allegory of Love. After the earlier poems of 
Chaucer the story-telling of England sought its sub- 
jects in another country than France. It turned to 
Italy. 

26. English Lyrics. — In the midst of all this 
story-telling, like prophecies of what should after- 
wards be so lovely in our poetry, rose, no one can 
tell how, some lyric poems, country idylls, love songs, 
and, later on, some war songs. The English ballad, 
sung from town to town by wandering gleemen, had 
never altogether died. A number of rude ballads 
collected round the legendary Robin Hood, and the 
kind of poetic literature which sung of the outlaw 
and the forest, and afterwards so fully of the wild 
border life, gradually took form. About 1280 a beau- 
tiful little idyll called the Owl and the Nightingale 
was written, probably in Dorsetshire, in which the 
rival birds submit their quarrel for precedence to the 
possible writer of the poem, Nicholas of Guildford. 
About 1300 we meet with a few lyric poems, full of 
charm. They sing of spring-time with its blossoms, of 
the woods ringing with the thrush and nightingale, 
of the flowers and the seemly sun, of country work, of 
the woes and joys of love, and many other delightful 



34 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

things. They are tinged with the colour of French 
romance, but they have an EngUsh background. We 
read nothing hke them, except in Scotland, till we 
come to the Elizabethan time. About the same date 
we find the satirical poem of the Land of Cockaygne, 
{coquina, a kitchen), where the monks live in an 
abbey built of pasties, and the rivers run with wine, 
and the geese fly through the air ready roasted, and 
a fair nunnery is close by, upon a river of sweet milk. 
The old ^;2^;;z/^ poetry returns in the PiviJerbs of Hen- 
dyng^ 1272, 1307. PoUtical ballads now began, in 
Edward I.'s reign, to be frequently written in English, 
but the only ballads of importance are that on the 
battle of Lewes, 1264, and the ten war-lyrics of 
Lawrence Minot, who, m 1352, sang the great deeds 
and battles of Edward IIL 

27. 1 he King's English. — We have thus traced 
the rise of our English literature to the time of Chaucer. 
We must now complete the sketch by a word or two 
on the language in which it was written. The literary 
English language seemed at first to be destroyed by the 
Conquest. It lingered till Stephen's death in the 
EngUsh Chronicle ; a few traces of it are still found 
aV)out Henry's III.'s death in the Brut oi Layamon. 
But, practically speaking, from the twelfth century till 
the middle of the fourteenth there was no standard of 
English. The language, spoken only by the people, 
fell back into that broken state of anarchy in which 
each part of the country has its own dialect, and each 
writer uses the dialect of his own dwelUng-place. All 
:he poems then of which we have spoken were written 
in dialects of English, not in a fixed English common 
to all writers. French or Latin was the language of 
literature and of the literary class. But towards 
the middle of Edward III.'s reign English got the 
better of French. After the Black Death in 1349 
French was less used ; in 1362 English was made the 
language of the courts of law. In the meantime, 



II.] FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER, 35 

during the prevalence of French, English prose and 
poetry had been invaded by French words. The 
Aficren Riwle, fifteen years after the Brut of Laya- 
mon, is full of them, and after Henry III.'s death a 
host of them rushed in, and the old English words 
died out in proportion. One-seventh of the old Eng- 
Hsh verbs, adverbs, and nouns used in 1200 are gone 
in 1300. Against 250 Romance words used in 1200, 
we have 800 used in 1300. A great deal of this work 
was done by the Friars. The medicine, the science 
of the time, were in their hands, and from 1220 they 
mixed themselves up, both by preaching and in society, 
with the crafts of the merchantmen and, interlarding 
all their speech with French words, made these words 
common among the crafts and the middle classes, 
till they stole in even into the Creed and the Lord's 
Prayer. Architecture, of course, became French in 
terms ; the Norman ladies introduced French terms of 
dress, and of all the arts and trades that ministered to 
their luxury. The knight brought in French terms for 
all the matters that had to do with war and hunting 
and cookery ; the lawyer, French terms that belonged 
to law and government \ while the Friars, talking to 
the people of the vices, luxury, customs and Uves of 
the upper class, made all these new French words 
common to the ears of the EngHsh-speaking classes. 
A great change was thus wrought in the English 
language. At the same time most of the older in- 
flections had disappeared, except in the South, and 
French endings and French prefixes began to be also 
used, till at last Oliphant can say that almost ^' every 
one of the Teutonic changes of idiom, distinguishing 
the old English from the new, the speech of Queen 
Victoria from that of Hengest, are to be found, in 1303, 
in Robert of Brunne's work, and a third of his nouns, 
verbs, and adverbs are French." In him then the 
new English arose into clear form. But it was not as 
yet a standard Enghsh : it was still in Robert's work 
4 



36 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

a dialect, the East-Midland dialect. Of the three 
dialects the Northern and Southern alone existed 
before the Conquest; but the literary English, which 
we may call Anglo-Saxon, was distinct from both, and 
we have said that it all but perished after the Con- 
quest. Another dialect then grew up in the Midland 
shires — in East Anglia, and to the west of the Pennine 
chaino It was the Midland dialect, and spoken over 
the largest tract, was divided into West and East Mid- 
land. The East Midland became the language of litera- 
ture, the standard English. Becoming, " in cloisters on 
the Nen and the Welland,'' the fullest receiver of the 
French words, and the largest accepter of the changes, 
and especially in Robert of Brunne's work, it took hold 
of Cambridge, and then of Oxford, and spoken and 
written in these two centres of learning, crept down, 
conquering, to the South, and finally seized on London.^ 
It did not overthrow the dialects, for the Vision of 
Piers the Plowman and V.^iclif's translation of the 
Bible are both in a dialect, but it became the standard 
English, the language in which all future Enghsh 
literature was to be written It was fixed into clear 
form by Chaucer and Gower. It was the language 
talked at the court and in the court society to which 
these poets belonged. It was the King's English, and 
the fact that it was the tongue of the best and most 
cultivated society, as well as the great excellence of the 
works written in it by these poets, made it at once 
the tongue of literature. 

28. Heligious Literature in Langland and 
Wiclif. — We have traced the work of ^* transition 
English," as it has been called, along the lines of 
popular religion and story-telling. The first of these, 
in the realm of poetry, reaches its goal in the work of 
William Langland ; in the realm of prose it reaches its 
goal in Wiclif. In both these writers, the work 

1 See for all this Oliphant's Standard English^ an admirable 
book. 



II.] FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER. 37 

differs from any that went before it, by its extraordinary 
power, and by the depth of its religious feeling. It is 
plain that it represented a society much more strongly 
moved by religion than that of the beginning of the 
fourteenth century. In Wiclif, the voice comes from 
the university, and it went all over the land in the 
body of preachers whom, like Wesley, he sent forth. 
In Langland's Vision we have a voice from the centre 
of the people themselves ; his poem is written in a 
style made uncouth by the necessities of its alliterative 
English verse, and in the old English manner. The 
very ploughboy could understand it. It became the 
book of those who desired social and Church reform. 
It was as eagerly read by the free labourers and 
fugitive serfs who collected round John Ball and Wat 
Tyler. 

29. Causes of the Religious Revival. — It was 
originally due to the preachmg of the Friars m the 
thirteenth century, and to the noble example they set 
of devotion to the poor. When the Friars however 
became rich, though pretending to be poor, and 
impure of life, though pretending to goodness, the 
religious feeling they had stirred turned agamst them- 
selves, and Its two strongest cries, both on the 
Continent and in England, were for Truth, and for 
Purity, in private life, m State and Church. 

Another cause common to the Continent and to 
England in this century was the movement for the 
equal rights of man against the class system of the 
middle ages. It was made a religious movement 
when men said that they were equal before .God, 
and that goodness in His eyes was the only 
nobility. And it brought with it a religious protest 
against the oppression of the people by the class of 
the nobles. 

There were two other causes, however, special to 
England at this time. One was the utter misery of 
the people, owing to the French wars. Heavy taxation 



38 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

fell upon them, and they were ground down by severe 
laws, which prevented them bettering themselves. 
They felt this aU the more because so many of them 
had bought their freedom, and began to feel the 
delight of freedom. It was then that in their misery 
they turned to religion, not only as their sole refuge, 
but as supplying ihem with reasons for a social revolu- 
tion. The other cause was the Black Death, the 
Great Plague which, in 1349, '62, and '69, swept 
over England. Grass grew in the towns; whole 
villages were left uninhabited ; a wild panic fell upon 
the people, which was added to by a terrible tempest 
in 1362 that to men's minds told of the wrath of 
God. In their terror then, as well as in their pain, they 
fied to religion. 

30. Piers the Plowman. — All these elements are 
to be found fully represented in the Vision of Piers 
the Plowman. Its author, William Langland, though 
we are not certain of his surname, was born, about 
1332, at Cleobury Mortimer, in Shropshire. His 
Vision begins with a description of his sleeping 
on the Malvern Hills, and the first text of it was 
probably written in the country in 1362. At the 
accession of Richard II., 1377, he was in London. 
The great popularity of his poem made him in that 
year, and again in the year 1393, send forth two more 
texts of his poem. In these texts he added to the 
original Vision the poems of Do Wei., Do Bet, and 
Do Best. In 1399, he wrote at Bristol his last poem, 
the Deposition of Richard II.., and then died, probably 
in 1400. 

He paints his portrait as he was when he Hved in 
Cornhill, a tall, gaunt figure, whom men called Long 
Will; clothed in the black robes in which he sang for 
a few pence at the funerals of the rich ; hating to take 
his cap off his shaven head to bow to the lords and 
ladies that rode by in silver and furs as he stalked in 
observant moodiness along the Strand. It is this 



II.] FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER. 39 

figure, which in indignant sorrow walks through the 
>vhole poem. 

31. His Vision.— The dream of the "field full of 
folk," with which it begins, brings together nearly as 
many typical characters as the Tales of Chaucer do. 
In the first part, the Truth sought for is righteous deal- 
ing in Church, and Law, and State. After the Prologue 
of the " field full of folk " and in it the Tower of Truth, 
and the Dungeon where the Father of Falsehood 
lives, the Vision treats of Holy Church who tells the 
dreamer of Truth. Where is Falsehood ? he asks. She 
bids him turn, and he sees Falsehood, and Lady Meed 
(or Bribery), and learns that they are to be married. 
Theology interferes, and all the parties go to London 
before the King. Lady Meed arraigned on False- 
hood's flight, is advised by the King to marry Con- 
science, but Conscience indignantly proclaims her 
faults, and prophesies that one day Reason will judge 
the world. On this the King sends for Reason, who, 
deciding a question against Wrong and in spite of 
Bribery, is begged by the King to remain with him. 
This fills four divisions or '^ Passus." The fifth Passus 
contains the Vision of the Seven Deadly Sins^ and is 
full of vivid pictures of friars, robbers, nuns, of village 
life, of London alehouses, of all the vices of the 
time. It ends with the search for Truth being taken 
up by all the penitents, and then for the first time Piers 
the Plowman appears and describes the way. He sets 
all who come to him to hard work, and it is here that 
the passages occur in which the labouring poor and 
their evils are dwelt upon. The seventh Passus intro- 
duces the bull of pardon sent by Truth (God the Father) 
to Piers. A Priest declares it is not valid, and the 
discussion between him and Piers is so hot that the 
Dreamer awakes and ends with a fine outburst on the 
wretchedness of a trust in indulgences and the noble- 
ness of a righteous life. This is the original poem. 

In the second part the truth sought for is that of 



40 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

righteous life, to Do Well^ to Do Better^ to Do Best, 
the three titles of the poems added afterwards. In a 
series of dreams and a highly-wrought allegory, Do 
Well, Do Bet, and Do Best, are finally identified with 
Jesus Christ, who now appears as Love in the dress of 
Piers the Plowman. Do Well is full of curious and j 
important passages. Do Bet points out Christ as the 
Saviour of the World, describes His death, resurrec- 
tion and victory over Death and Sin. And the 
dreamer wakes in a transport of joy, with the Easter 
chimes pealing in his ears. But as Langland looked 
round on the world, the victory did not seem real, 
and the stern dreamer passed out of triumph into 
the dark sorrow in which he lived. He dreams 
again in Do Best, and sees, as Christ leaves the earth, 
the reign of Antichrist. Evils attack the Church and 
mankind. Envy, Pride, and Sloth, helped by the 
Friars, besiege Conscience. Conscience cries on 
Contrition to help him, but Contrition is asleep, and 
Conscience, all but despairing, grasps his pilgrim staff 
and sets out to w^ander over the world, praying for 
luck and health, "till he have Piers the Plowman,'* 
till he find the Saviour. And then the dreamer 
wakes for the last time, weeping bitterly. 

This is the poem which wTOught so strongly in 
men's minds that its influence was almost as widely 
spread as Wiclif's in the revolt which had now begun 
against Latin Christianity. Its fame was so great, that it 
produced imitators. About 1394, another alliterative 
poem was set forth by an unknown author, with the 
title of Pierce the Plo7imia7i's Crede; and the Plonmian's 
Tale, wrongly attributed to Chaucer, is another witness 
to the popularity of Langland. 

32. Wiclif. — At the same time as the Vision was 
being read all over England, John Wiclif, about 1380, 
began his work in the English tongue with a nearly 
complete Translation of the Bible. It was a book which 
had as much influence in fixing our language as the 



II.] FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER. 41 

work of Chaucer. But he did much more than this for 
our tongue. He made it the popular language of re- 
ligious thought and feehng. In 1381 he was in full 
battle with the Church on the doctrine of transub- 
stantiation, and was condemned to silence. He replied 
by appealing to the whole of England in the speech of 
the people. He sent forth tract after tract, sermon 
after sermon, couched not in the dry, philosophic 
style of the schoolmen, but in short, sharp, stinging 
sentences, full of the homely words used in his own 
Bible, denying one by one almost all the doctrines, 
and denouncing the practices, of the Church of Rome. 
He was our first Protestant. It was a new literary 
vein to open, the vein of the pamphleteer. With his 
work then, and with Langland's, we bring up to the year 
1400 the Enghsh prose and poetry pertaining to re- 
ligion, the course of which we have been tracing since 
the Conquest. 

'^'7^. Story-telling is the other line on which we 
have placed our literature, and it is represented first 
by John Gower. He belongs to a school older than 
Chaucer, inasmuch as he is scarcely touched by the 
Italian, but chiefly by the French influence. Y'liXy Balades 
prove with what grace he could write when a young 
man in the French tongue about the affairs of love. 
As he grew older he grew graver, and partly as the 
religious and social reformer, and partly as the story- 
teller, he fills up the literary transition between Langland 
and Chaucer." In the church of St. Saviour, at South- 
wark, his head is still seen resting on his three great 
works, the Speculum Medifantts, the Vox Clamafitts, 
the Confessio Amantis^ 13 93- It marks the unsettled 
state of our literary language, that each of these was 
written in a different tongue, the first in French, the 
second in Latin, the third in English. 

The third, his English work, is a dialogue between 
a lover and his confessor a priest of Venus, and in its 
course, and with an imitation of Jean de Meun's 



42 ENGLISH LITER A TURE, [chap. 

part of the Roma7i de la Rose^ all the passions and 
studies which may hinder love are dwelt upon, partly 
in allegory, and their operation illustrated by apposite 
stories, borrowed from the Gesta Romanorum and 
from the Romances. The tales are wearisome, and 
the smoothness of the verse makes them more weari- 
some. But Govver was a careful writer of English ; 
and in his satire of evils, and in his grave reproof of 
the follies of Richard II., he rises into his best strain. 
The king himself, even though reproved, was a patron 
of the poet. It was as Govver was rowing on the 
Thames that the royal barge drew near, and he was 
called to the king's side. "Book some new thing,'' 
said the king, ^' in the way you are used, into which 
book I myself may often look ; " and the request was 
the origin of the Confession of a Lover, It is with 
pleasure that we turn from the learned man of talent 
to Geoffrey Chaucer — to the genius who called Gower, 
with perhaps some of the irony of an artist, " the moral 
Gower." 

34. Chaucer's French Period.— Geoffrey 
Chaucer was the son of a vintner, of Thames Street, 
London, and was born, it is now believed, in 1J4.0. He 
lived almost all his life in London, in the centre of its 
work and society. When he was sixteen he became 
page to the wife of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and con- 
tinued at the Court till he joined the army in France 
in 1359. He was taken prisoner, but ransomed be- 
fore the treaty of Bretigny, in 1360. We then know 
nothing of his Hfe for six years ; but from items in 
the Exchequer Rolls, we find that he was again 
connected with the Court, from 1366 to 1372. It 
was during this time that he began to write. His first 
poem may have been the A, B, C, a prayer Englished 
from the French at the request of the Duchess Blanche. 
The translation of the Romaunt of the Rose has been 
attributed to him, but the best critics are doubtful 
of, or deny, his authorship. They are only sure of 



II. j FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER. 43 

two poems, the Compleyfite to Fity in 1368, and in the 
next year the Dethe of Blaiinche the DiicJiesse^ whose 
husband, John of Gaunt, was Chaucer's patron. These, 
being written under the influence of French poetry, 
are classed under the name of Chaucer's first period. 
There are lines in them which seem to speak of a 
luckless love affair, and in this broken love it has been 
supposed we find the key to Chaucer's early life, 

35. Chaucer's Italian Period. — Chaucer's 
second poetic period may be called the period of 
Italian influence, from 1372 to 1384. During these 
years he went for the king on no less than seven 
diplomatic missions. Three of these, in 1372, '74, 
and '78, were to Italy. At that time the great Italian 
literature which inspired then, and still inspires, 
European literature, had reached full growth, and it 
opened to Chaucer a new world of art. His many 
quotations from Dante show that he had read the 
Divina Commedia, and we may well think that he then 
first learnt the full power and range of poetry. He 
read the Sonnets of Petrarca, and he learnt what 
is meant by** form" in poetry. He read the tales 
and poems of Boccaccio, who made Italian prose, and 
in them he first saw how to tell a story exquisitely. 
Petrarca and Boccaccio he may even have met^ for 
they died in 1374 and 1375, but ne never saw Dante, 
who died at Ravenna in 132 1. When he came back 
from these journeys he was a new man. He threw 
aside the romantic poetry of France, and laughed at 
it in his gay and kindly manner in the Ri77ie of Sir 
Thopas, afterwards made one of the Canterbury Tales. 
His chief work of this time bears witness to the influ- 
ence of Italy. It w^as Troy his and Cresezde, 1382 (?), 
a translation, with many changes and additions, of the 
Filostrato of Boccaccio. The additions (and he 
nearly doubled the poem) are stamped with his own 
peculiar tenderness, vividness, and simplicity. His 
changes from the original are all towards the side of 



44 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

purity, good taste, and piety. We meet the further 
influence of Boccaccio in the birth of some of the 
Canterbury Tales ^ and of Petrarca in the Tales them- 
selves. To this time is now referred the tales of the 
Second Nun, the Monk, the Doctor, the Man of Law, 
the Clerk, the Prioress, the Squire, the Franklin, Sir 
Thopas, and the first draft of the Knight's Tale, 
borrowed, with much freedom, from the Teseide of 
Boccaccio. The other poems of this period were the 
Compleynt of Mars^ Anelida and A rate, Boece, the 
Former Age, and the Parlanwit of Foiiles, all between 
1374 and 1382, iht Lines to Adam Scrivener, 1383, and 
the Hous of Fa?ne, 1384 (?). In the passion with 
which Chaucer describes the ruined love of Troilus 
and AneHda, some have traced the lingering sorrow 
of his early love affair. But if this be true, it was 
now passing away, for in the creation of Pandarus in 
the Troilus, and in the delightful fun of the Parlament 
of Foules, a new Chaucer appears, the humorous poet of 
some of the Canterbury Tales, In the active business 
life he led during this period he was likely to grow 
out of mere sentiment, for he was not only employed 
on service abroad, but also at home. In 1374 he 
was Comptroller of the Wool Customs, in 1382 of 
the Petty Customs, and in 1386 Member of Par- 
liament for Kent. 

2^(i. Chaucer's English Period. — It is in the 
next period, from 1384 to 1390, that he left behind 
(except in the borrowing of his subjects) Italian in- 
fluence as he had left French, and became entirely 
himself, entirely English. The comparative poverty 
in which he now lived, and the loss of his oftices, 
for in John of Gaunt's absence court favour was 
withdrawn from him, may have given him more 
time for study and the retired life of a poet. At 
least in his Legende of Good Women, the prologue to 
which was written in 1385, we find him a closer 
student than ever of books and of nature. His 



n ] FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER. 45 

appointment as Clerk of the Works in 1389 brought 
him again into contact with men. He supermtended 
the repairs and building at the Palace of Westminster, 
the Tower, and St. George's Chapel, Windsor, till 
July, 1 39 1, when he was superseded, and lived on 
pensions allotted to him by Richard, and by Henry IV», 
after he had sent that king in 1399 his Compleint to 
his Purse. Before 1390, however, he had added to 
his great work its most English tales ; the Miller, the 
Reeve, the Cook, the Wife of Bath, the Merchant, 
the Friar, the Nun, Priest, Pardoner, and perhaps the 
Sompnour. The Prologue was probably written in 
1388. In these, in their humour, in their vividness of 
portraiture, in their ease of narration, and in the variety 
of their characters, Chaucer shines supreme. A few 
smaller poems belong to this time, such as Truth and 
the Moder of God, 

During the last ten years of his life, which may be 
called the period of his decay, he wrote some small 
poems, and along with the Compleynte of Venus, and a 
prosejreatise on the Astrolabe, three more Canterbury 
tales, the Canon^s-yeoman's, Manciple's, and Parsone^s. 
The last was written the year of his death, 1400. 
Having done this work he died in a house under the 
shadow of the Abbey of Westminster. Within the 
walls of the Abbey Church, the first of the poets who 
lies there, that " sacred and happy spirit '^ sleeps. 

37. Chaucer's Character. — Born of the trades- 
man class, Chaucer was in every sense of the word 
one of our finest gentlemen : tender, graceful in 
thought, glad of heart, humorous, and satirical 
without unkindness ; sensitive to every change of 
feeling in himself and others, and therefore full of 
sympathy ; brave in misfortune, even to mirth, and 
doing well and with careful honesty all he undertook. 
His first and great delight was in human nature, and 
he makes us love the noble characters in his poems, 
and feel with kindliness towards the baser and ruder 



46 ENGLISH LI VERA TURE. [chap. 

sort. He never sneers, for he had a wide charity, and 
we can always smile in his pages at the follies and for- 
give the sins of men. He had a true and chivalrous 
regard for women of his own class, and his wife and he 
ought to have been very happy if they had fulfilled the 
ideal he had of marriage.^ He lived in aristocratic 
society, and yet he thought him the greatest gentleman 
who was '^most vertuous alway, prive, and pert (open), 
and most entendeth aye to do the gentil dedes that he 
can." He lived frankly among men, and as we have 
seen, saw many different types of men, and in his 
own time filled many parts as a man of the world and 
of business. Yet, with all this active and observant 
life, he was commonly very quiet and kept much to 
himself. The Host in the Tales japes at him for his 
lonely, abstracted air. " Thou lookest as thou wouldesf 
find a hare. And ever on the ground I see thee stare.' 
Being a good scholar, he read morning and night alone, 
and he says that after his (office) work he would go 
home and sit at another book as dumb as a stone, till 
his look was dazed. While at study and when he was 
making of songs and ditties, '* nothing else that God 
had made " had any interest for him. There was but 
one thing that roused him then, and- that too he liked 
to enjoy alone. It was the beauty of the morning and 
the fields, the woods, and streams, and flowers, and 
the singing of the little birds. This made his heart 
full of revel and solace, and when spring came after 
winter, he rose with the lark and cried, '* Farewell, my 
book and my devotion." He was the first who made 
the love of nature a distinct element in our poetry. 
He was the first who, in spendmg the whole day 
gazing alone on the daisy, set going that lonely delight 
in natural scenery which is so special a mark of our 
later poets. He lived thus a double life, in and out 

^ If we may jud^/e from the poems — see especially his marriage 
Poem to Bukton — he was even more unhappy than Shakspere in 
his married life. 



II.] FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER, 47 

of the world, but never a gloomy one. For he was 
fond of mirth and good-living, and when he grew 
towards age, was portly of waist, *•' no poppet to 
embrace." But he kept to the end his elfish coun- 
tenance, the shy, delicate, half mischievous face which 
looked on men from its grey hair and forked beard, 
and was set off by his dark-coloured dress and hood. 
A knife and inkhorn hung on his dress ; we see a 
rosary in his hand; and when he w^as alone he walked 
swiftly. 

38. The Canterbury Tales,. — Of his work it is 
not easy to speak briefly, because of its great 
variety. Enough has been said of it, with the ex- 
ception of his most complete creation, the CaJi- 
terbury Tales. It will be seen from the dates given 
above that they were not written at one time. 
They are not, and cannot be looked on as a v*^hole. 
Many were written independently, and then fitted 
into the framework of the Prologue in 1388. At 
that time a numiber more were written, and the 
rest added at intervals till his death. In fact, the 
whole thing was done much in the same way as Mr. 
Tennyson has written his Idylls of the King, The 
manner in which he knitted them together was very 
simple, and likely to please the English people. The 
holiday excursions of the time were the pilgrimages, 
and the most famous and the pleasantest pilgrimage 
to go, especially for Londoners, was the three or four 
days' journey to see the shrine of St. Thomas at 
Canterbury. Persons of all ranks in life met and 
travelled together, starting from a London inn. 
Chaucer seized on this as the frame in which to set 
his pictures of life. He grouped around the jovial 
host of the Tabard Inn men and women of every 
class of society in England, set them on horseback 
to ride to Canterbury, and made each of them tell a 
tale. No one could hit off a character better, and in 
his Prologue, and in the prologues to the several TaleSf 
5 



48 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

the whole of the new, vigorous English society v/hich 
had grown up since Edward I. is painted with as- 
tonishing vividness. " I see all the pilgrims in the 
Caftterbujy Tales,'' says Dryden, " their humours, their 
features, and the very dress, as distinctly as if I had 
supped with them at the Tabard in South wark." 
The Tales themselves take in the whole range of the 
poetry of the middle ages ; the legend of the saint, 
the romance of the Knight, the wonderful fables of 
the traveller, the coarse tale of common life, the 
love story, the allegory, the satirical lay, and the 
apologue. And they are pure tales. He is not in 
any sense a dramatic writer ; he is our greatest story- 
teller in verse. All the best tales are told easily, 
sincerely, with great grace, and yet with so much 
homeliness, that a child would understand them. 
Sometimes his humour is broad, sometimes sly, 
sometimes gay, sometimes he brings tears into our 
eyes, and he can make us smile or be sad as he 
pleases. 

He had a very fine ear for the music of verse, and 
the tale and the verse go together like voice and music. 
Indeed, so softly flowing and bright are they, that to 
read them is like listening in a meadow full of sun- 
shine to a clear stream rippling over its bed of 
pebbles. The English in which they are written is 
almost the English of our time ; and it is literary 
English. Chaucer made our tongue into a true means 
of poetry. He did more, he welded together the 
French and English elements in our language and 
made them into one English tool for the use of 
literature, and all our prose writers and poets derive 
their tons^ue from the language of the Canterbury 
Tales, They give him honour for this, but still more 
for that he was the first English artist. Poetry is an 
art, and the artist in poetry is one who writes for pure 
pleasure and for nothing else the thing he writes, and 
who desires to give to others the same fine pleasure by 



II.] FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER, 49 

his poems which he had in writing them. The thing 
he most cares about is that the form in which he puts 
his thoughts or feelings may be perfectly fitting to the 
subject, and as beautiful as possible — but for this he 
cares very greatly ; and in this Chaucer stands apart 
from the other poets of his time. Gower wrote with 
a set object, and nothing. can be duller than the form 
in which he puts his tales. The author of Fiers 
the Plowman wrote with the object of reform in social 
and ecclesiastical affairs, and his form is uncouth and 
harsh. Chaucer wrote because he was full of emotion 
and joy in his own thoughts, and thought that others 
would weep and be glad with him, and the only time 
he ever moralises is in the tales of the Yeoman and 
the Manciple, written in his decay. He has, then, the 
best right to the poet^s name. He is our first English 
artist. 

39. Mandeville. — I have already noticed the 
prose of Wiclif under the religious class of EngHsh 
work. I have kept Sir John Mandeville for this place, 
because he belongs to light literature. He is called 
our *' first writer in formed EngHsh,^' and his English 
is that spoken at court in the later years of Edward lU. 
Chaucer himself however wrote some things, and 
especially one of his Tales, in an involved prose, and 
John of Trevisa translated into Enghsh prose, 1387, 
Higden's Polychronicon, Mandeville wrote his Travels 
first in Latin, then in French, and finally put them 
into our tongue about 1356, ** that every man of the 
nation might understand them.*' His quaint delight 
in telling his "traveller's tales,'' and sometimes the 
grace with which he tells them, rank him among the 
story-tellers of England. What he himself saw he 
describes accurately, and he saw a great part of the 
world. Thirty-four years he wandered, even to the 
Tartars of Cathay, and then, unwearied, wrote his 
book at home. 



so ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

CHAPTER III. 

FROM CHAUCER, 1403, TO ELIZABETH, 1559- 

Thomas Hoccleve (Henry V.'s reign) ; J. Lyd^ate, Falls of Princes 
(in Henry VI.). - Sir John Fortescue's prose w ork, and Sir T. 
Malory's Morte d' Ai'thur (Edward IV.). — Caxton prints at 
Westminster, 1477.— Paston Letters, 1422— 1505.— Hawes' 
Pastime of PI easuj-e, 1506. — John Skelton's poems, 1508 — 
". 1529.— Sir T. More's History of Richard III, 1513.— 
Tyndale's Translation of the Bible, 1525. — Engl'sh Prayer 
Book, 1549- — Ascham's Toxophilus, 1545- — Poems of 
Wyatt and Surrey, in TotteVs Miscellany, 1557- 

Scottish Poetry, begins with Barbour's Brtice, 1375 — 7 ; 
James I.'s ICings Qu/iair, 1424. — T. Henryson dies, 1508- 
— Dunbar's Thistle and Rose, 1503- — Gawin Pouglas dies, 
1522 —Sir D. Lyndsay born, 1490 ; Satire of Three 
Estates, 1535 ; dies 1555. 

40. The Fifteenth Century Poetry.— The 

last poems of Chaucer and Langland bring our story 
up to 1400. The hundred years that followed is the 
most barren in our literature. The influence of 
Chaucer lasted, and of the poems attributed to him, 
but now rejected by scholars, some certainly belong 
to the first half of this c'entury. The Court of Love, 
The Cuckoo and the JSIightiiigale, The Flower aiid the 
Leaf, the Complaint of the Black Knight, stated by 
Shirley, Chaucer's contemporary, to be Lydgate's, 
Chaucer s Dream, A Goodly Ballad of Chaucer, A . 
Praise of Women, Leaulte vault Richesse, Proverhes of 
Chaucer} the last two stanzas of which are a separate 
poem attributed by Shirley to " Halsam, squiere," 
the Rou7idel, the Vi7'elai, and Chaucer'' s Prophecy, are 
with the Romau7it of the Rose (which I cannot sur- 
render), held by Mr. Bradshaw not to be Chaucer's. 
They will be found in the editions of Chaucer, and 
^ Morris's Chaucer, vi. 303. 



III.] FROM CHAUCER TO ELIZABETH, 51 

some of them, especially The Flmver and the Leaf^nd. 
The Cuckoo and the Nightingale^ prove that there were 
poets who could, during this century, not only imitate 
the style, but also drink of the spirit of Chaucer. 

41. Thomas Hoccleve, a bad versifier of the 
reign of Henry V., loved Chaucer well. ^* With his loss 
the whole land smartith," he said ; and in the MS. of his 
longest poem, the Gove^viail of Pi'i7iccs^ written before 
14T3, he caused to be drawn, with fond idolatry, the 
portrait of his " master dear and father reverent," who 
had enlumined all the land with his books. 

42. John Lydgate was a more worthy follower 
of Chaucer. A monk of Bury, and thirty years of age 
when Chaucer died, he yet wrote nothing of much 
importance till the reign of Henry VI. He was a 
gay and pleasant person, though a long-winded poet, 
and he seems to have lived even in his old age, when 
he recalls himself as a boy '* weeping for naught, 
anon after glad," the fresh and natural life of one who 
enjoyed everything; but, like many gay persons, 
he had a vein of melancholy, and some of his best 
work, at least in the poet Gray's opinion, belongs 
to the realms of pathetic and moral poetry. But 
there was scarcely any literary work he could not 
do. He rimed history, ballads, and legends, till the 
monastery was delighted. He made pageants for 
Henry VL, masks and May-games for aldermen, 
mummeries for the Lord Mayor, and satirical ballads 
on the follies of the day. Educated at Oxford, a 
traveller in France and Italy, he knew the literature of 
his time, and he even dabbled in the sciences. He 
was as much a lover of nature as Chaucer, but cannot 
make us feel the beauty of nature in the same way. 
It is his story-telling which links him closest to his 
master. His three chief poems were the Falls of 
Princes^ the Storie of Thebes, and the Troye Book, 
The first is a translation of a French version of 
Boccaccio's De Casibus Viroruni et Femi7iarum Illus^- 



52 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

triuvi. It tells the tragic fates of great men and 
women from the time of Adam to the capture of King 
John of France at Poitiers. The plan is dramatic ; 
the sorrowful dead appear before Boccaccio, pensive 
in his library, and each tells of his downfall. The 
Storie of Thebes is introduced as an additional Canter- 
bury Tale, and is made into a chivalric romance. 
The Troye Book is a version from the French of Guido 
di Colonna's prose romance. A hundred years, as 
we shall see, did not exhaust his influence, for in the 
Mirror of Magistrates^ eight poets united to write a 
supplement to his Falls of Princes, 

A few minor poets do no more now than keep 
poetry alive. Another version of the Troy Story in 
Henry VI.'s time; Hugh de Campeden's Sidrac. 
Thomas Chestre's Lay of Sir Launfal, and the transla- 
tion of the Earl of Ibulouse, prove that romances were 
still taken from the French. William Lichfield's Com- 
plaint between God aiid Man, and William Nassington's 
Mirrour of Life, carry on the religious, and the Tour- 
nament of Totteiiham the satirical, poetry. John Cap- 
grave's translation of the Life of St, Catherine \^ less 
known than his Chronicle of England dedicated to 
Edward IV. He, with John Harding, a soldier of 
Agincourt, whose riming Chronicle belongs to Edward 
IV. 's reign, continue the historical poetry. A number of 
obscure versifiers, Thomas Norton, and George Ripley 
who wrote on alchemy, and Dame JuHana Berners' 
book on Hunting, bring us to the reign of Henry VII., 
when Skelton first began to write. Meanwhile poetry, 
which had decayed in England, was flourishing in 
Scotland (p. 62). 

43. Ballads, lays, fragments of romances, had 
been sung in England from the earliest times, and 
popular tales and jokes took form in short lyric pieces, 
to be accompanied with music and dancing. In fact 
the ballad went over the whole land among the people. 
The trader, the apprentices, and poor of the cities, 



III.] FROM CHAUCER TO ELIZABETH. 53 

the peasantry, had their own songs. They tended to 
collect themselves round some legendary name like 
Robin Hood, or some historical character made 
legendary, like Randolf, Earl of Chester. Sloth, in 
Piers Plowman's Vision^ does not know his pater- 
noster, but he does know the rimes of these heroes. 
A crowd of minstrels sang them through city and 
village. The very friar sang them " and made his 
Enghssch swete upon his tunge." A collection of 
Robin Hood ballads was printed under the title A 
Geste of Robyn Hode, by Chepman and Myllar in Edin- 
burgh, about 1506, and soon after as A Lytel Geste 
of Robin Hood, by Wynken de VVorde. The Nut Brow7i 
Maid, about 150C-1502, The Battle of Otterbiirn^ 
about 1460, and Cheiy Chase, after 1460, belong to 
the end of 1400 and the beginning of 1500. It was 
not however till much later that any collection of bal- 
lads was made ; and few, in the form we possess them, 
can be dated farther back than the reign of Elizabeth. 
44. Prose Literature. — The work that Mande- 
ville had begun as the first writer of new English prose, 
that Chaucer, and Wiclif assisted by Purvey and Here- 
ford, had continued, was worthily carried on in the 
fifteenth century by four masters of English prose, 
Pecock, Mallory, Fortescue, and Caxton. The re- 
ligious war between the Lollards and the Church raged 
during the reigns of Henry V. and Henry VL, and 
in the time of the latter Reginald Pecock took it 
out of Latin into homely English. He fought the Lol- 
lards with their own weapons, with pubHc sermons in 
English, and with tracts in English ; and after 1449, 
when Bishop of Chichester, published his work, The^ 
Repressor of overmuch Blaming of the Clergy, It 
pleased neither party. The Lollards disliked it 
because it defended the customs and doctrines of the 
Church. Churchmen burnt it because it agreed with 
the *' Bible-men," that the Bible was the only rule of 
faith. Both abjured it because it said that doctrines 



54 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [CHAP. 

were to be proved from the Bible by reason. Pecock 
is the first of all the Church theologians who wrote in 
English, and the book is a fine example of our early 
prose. 

.Sir John Fortescue's book on the Difference be- 
tween Absolute and Li?nited Monarchy^ in -Edward IV. ^s 
Tei^n, is less fine an example of the prose of English 
politics than Sir Thomas Malory's Le A/ or ted' Arthur 
is of the prose of chivalry. This book, arranged and 
modelled into an epic from French and contem- 
porary English materials, is the work of a man of 
genius, and was ended in the ninth year of Edward 
IV., fifteen years before Caxton had finished printmg 
it. Its prose, in its staid simphcity, may well have 
charmed Caxton, who printed it with all the care of 
one who/Hoved the noble acts of chivalry." Caxton's 
own work added to the prose of England. Born of 
Kentish parents, h-^ went to the Low Countries in 
1440, and learned his trade. The first book said to 
have been printed in this country was The Game and 
Playe of the Chesse, 1474. The first book that bears 
the inscription, ^' Imprynted by me, William Caxton, at 
Westmynstre," is The Dides and Sayings of Philosophers. 
But the first English book Caxton made^ and finished 
at Cologne in 147 1, was his translation oi \.]\q Recuyell 
of the Historyes of Troy, and in this book, and in his 
translation of Reynard the Fox from the Dutch, in his 
translation of the Golden Legend, and his re-editing of 
Tre visa's Chronicle, in which he '* changed the rude 
and old English," he kept, by the fixing power of the 
press, the Midland English which Chaucer had esta- 
blished as the tongue of Hterature, from further degra- 
dation. Forty years later Tyndale's New Testament 
fixed it for ever as the standard English, and the 
Elizabethan writers kept it in its purity. 

45. Influences which laid the Foundations 
of the Elizabethan Literature. — The first of these 
grew out of Caxton's work. John Shirley, a gentleman 



III.] FkOM CHAUCER TO ELIZABETH. 55 

of good family, and Chaucer's contemporary, who died, 
a very old man, in 1449, deserves mention as a trans- 
criber and preserver of the works of Chaucer and Lyd- 
gate,but Caxton fulfilled the task Shirley had begun. 
He printed Chaucer and Lydgate and Gower with zea- 
lous care. He printed the Chronicle of the Brut, and 
Higden's Folychrofttcon ; he secured for us the Morte 
d' Arthur, He had a tradesman's interest in publish- 
ing the romances, for they were the reading of the 
day ; but he could scarcely have done better for the 
interests of the coming literature. These books 
nourished the imagination of England, and supplied 
poet after poet with fine subjects for work, or fine 
frames for their subjects. He had not a tradesman's, 
but a loving literary interest in printing the old 
English poets ; and in sending them out from his press 
Caxton kept up the continuity of English poetry. 
The poets after him at once began on the models 
of Chaucer and Gower and Lydgate ; and the books 
themselves being more widely read, not only made 
poets but a public that loved poetry. The imprinting 
of old English poetry was one of the sources in this 
century of the Elizabethan literature. 

The second source was the growth of an interest in 
classic literature. All through the last two-thirds of this 
century, though so little creative work was done, the 
interest in that literature grew. The Wars of the Roses 
did not stop the reading of books. The Paston Letters^ 
1422 — 1505, the correspondence of a country family 
from Henry VI. to Henry VH., are pleasantly, even 
correctly written, and contain passages which refer to 
translations of the classics and to manuscripts sent to 
and fro for reading. A great number of French trans- 
lations of the Latin classics were widely read in 
England. Henry VI., Edward IV., and some of the 
great nobles were lovers of books. Men like Duke 
Humphrey of Gloucester made Ubraries and brought 
over Italian scholars to England to translate Greek 



56 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

works. There were fine scholars in England, like John, 
Lord Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, who had won fame in 
the schools of Italy, and whose translations of Cicero's 
De Amicitid and of Cesar's De Bello Galdco prove, 
with his Latin letters, how worthy he was of the praise 
of Padua and the gratitude of Oxford. He added 
many MSS. to the library of Duke Humphrey. Many 
men, like Robert Flemmyng, Dean of Lincoln ; John 
Gunthorpe, Dean of Wells; Wilham Grey, Bishop 
of Ely; John Phreas, Provost of Balliol, Wilham 
Sellynge, Fellow of All Souls, studied at Ferrara 
under Baptista Guarini, and collected MSS. in Italy 
of the classics, with which they enriched the libraries of 
England. There was therefore in England a swiftly- 
growing interest in the ancient writers. 

46. The Influence of the Italian RevivaL — 
Such an interest was made and deepened by the revival 
of letters which arose after 1453 in Italy, and we have 
seen that before the last two decades of the fifteenth 
century many Englishmen had gone to Italy to read 
and study the old Greek authors on whom the scholars 
driven from Constantinople by the Turks were lecturing 
in the schools of Florence. The New Learning in- 
creased in England, and passed on into the sixteenth 
century, until it decayed for a time in the violence of 
the religious struggle. But we had now begun to do our 
own work as translators of the classics, and the young 
English scholars whom the Italian revival had awakened 
filled year after year the land with English versions of 
the ancient writers of Rome and Greece. It is in this 
growing influence of the great classic models of litera- 
ture that we find the gathering together of another of 
the sources of that great Elizabethan literature which 
seems to arise so suddenly, but which had, in reaUty, 
been long preparing. 

47. Prose under Henry VIII. — The reigns of 
Richard III. and of Henry VII. brought forth no prose 
of any worth, but the country awakened from its dul- 



III.] FROM CHAUCER TO ELIZABETH, 57 

ness with the accession of Henry VIIL, 1509. John 
Colet, Dean of St. PauFs, with WiUiam Lilly, the gram- 
marian, set on foot a school where the classics were 
taught in a new and practical way, and between the 
year 1500 and the Reformation twenty grammar-schools 
were established. Erasmus, who had all the enthu- 
siasm which sets others on fire, had come to England 
in 1497, and found Grocyn and Linacre at Oxford, 
teaching the Greek they had learnt from Chalcondylas 
at Florence. He learnt Greek from them, and found 
eager admiration of his own scholarship in Bishop 
Fisher, Sir Thomas More, Colet, and Archbishop 
Warham. From these men a liberal and moderate 
theology spread, which soon, however, perished in the 
heats of the Reformation. But the new learning they 
had started grew rapidly, assisted by the munificence 
of Wolsey ; and Cambridge, under Cheke and Smith, 
excelled even Oxford in Greek learning. The study 
of the great classics set free the minds of men, stirred 
and gave life to letters, and woke up English prose 
from its sleep. Its earliest effort was its best. It was 
in 15 13 (not printed till 1557) that Thomas More 
wrote our first history in English, of Edward V.'s life 
and Richard HL's usurpation. The simplicity of his 
genius showed itself in the style, and his wdt in the 
picturesque method and the dramatic dialogue that 
graced the book. The stately historical step was 
laid aside by More in the tracts of nervous English 
with which he replied to Tyndale, but both his styles 
are remarkable for their purity. Of all the *^ strong 
words" he uses, three out of four are Teutonic. More's 
most famous work, the Utopia^ 1516, was written in 
Latin, but was translated afterwards, in 1551, by Ralph 
Robinson. It tells us more of the curiosity the New 
Learning had awakened in Englishmen concerning all 
the problems of life, society, government, and religion, 
than any other book of the time. It is the representative 
book of that short but well-defined period which we 



5S ENGLISH LITERA TURE. [cHAP. 

may call English Renaissance before the Reformation. 
Much of the progress of prose was due to the patron- 
age of the young king. It was the king who asked 
Lord Berners to translate Froissai't^ a book which in 
1523 made a landmark in our tongue. It was the 
king who supported Sir Thomas Elyot in his effort 
to improve education, and encouraged him to write 
books (1531-46) in the vulgar tongue that he might 
please his countrymen. It was the king who made 
Leland, our first English writer on antiquarian sub- 
jects, the ** King's Antiquary," 1533. It was the king 
to whom Roger Ascham dedicated his first work, 
and who sent him abroad to pursue his studies. This 
book, the Toxophilus, or the School of Shootings 15 45? 
was written for the pleasure of the yeomen and gentle- 
men of England in their own tongue. Ascham apolo- 
gises for this, and the apology marks the state of 
English prose. "Everything has been done excel- 
lently well in Greek and Latin, but in the English 
tongue so meanly that no man can do worse.'' But 
Ascham's quamt English has its charm, and he did not 
know that the very rudeness of language of which he 
complained was in reality laying the foundations of 
an English more Teutonic and less Latin than the 
English of Chaucer. 

48. Prose and the Reformation. — The bigotry 
and the avarice and the violent controversy of the 
Reformation killed for a time the New Learning, but it 
did a vast work for English literature in its translation 
of the Bible. William Tyndale's Tra?islation of the 
New Testament^ 1525, fixed our standard English once 
for all, and brought it finally into every EngHsh 
home. Tyndale held fast to pure EngHsh. In his 
two volumes of political tracts '^ there are only twelve 
Teutonic words which are now obsolete, a strong 
proof of the influence his translation of the Bible has 
had in preserving the old speech of England." Of the 
6,000 words of the Authorised Versio?i, still in a great 



111.] FROM CHAUCER TO ELIZABETH, 59 

part his translation, only 250 are not now in common 
use. ^* Three out of four of his nouns, adverbs, and 
verbs are Teutonic." And he spoke sharply enough 
to those who said our tongue was so rude that the 
Bible could not be translated into it. '^ It is not so 
rude as they are false liars. For the Greek tongue 
agreeth more with the English than the Latin ; a thou- 
sand parts better may it be translated into the English 
than into the Latin." 

Tyndale was helped in his English Bible by William 
Roy, a runaway friar ; and his friend Rogers, the first 
martyr in Queen Mary's reign, added the translation 
of the Apocrypha^ and made up what was wanting in 
Tyndale's translation from Chronicles to Malachi out 
of Coverdale's translation. It was this Bible which, 
revised by Coverdale and edited and re-edited as 
Cromweirs Bible, 1539, and again as Cramner's Bible, 
1540, was set up in every parish church in England. 
It got north into Scotland and made the Lowland 
English more like the London English. It passed 
over to the Protestant settlements in Ireland. After 
its revisal in 161 1 it went with the Puritan Fathers to 
New England and fixed the standard of English in 
America. Eighty miUions of people now speak the 
English of Tyndale's Bible, and there is no book which 
has had so great an influence on the style of English 
Hterature and the standard of Enghsh Prose. ' In 
Edward VI 's reign also Cranmer edited the English 
Prayer Book, 1549-52. Its English is a good deal 
mixed with Latin words, and its style is sometimes weak 
or heavy, but on the whole it is a fine example of 
stately prose. It also steadied our speech. Latimer, 
on the contrary, whose Sermon on the Ploughers and 
others were deHvered in 1549 and in 1552, wrote 
in a plain, shrewd style, which by its humour and 
rude directness made him the first preacher of his day. 
On the whole the Reformation fixed and confirmed 
our English tongue, but at the same time it brought 
6 



6o ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

in through theology a large number of Latm words. 
The pairing of English and Latin words {acknowledge 
and confess^ &c.) in the Prayer Book is a good example 
of both these results. 

49. Poetry in the Sixteenth Century under 
the Influence of Chaucer. — We shall speak in this 
section only of the poets in England whose work was 
due to the publication of Chaucer, Gower, and 
Lydgate by Caxton, and go back also to the Scotch 
poetry which owed itself to the impulse of Chaucer. 
After a short revival that influence died, and a new 
one entered from Italy into English verse in the poems 
of Surrey and Wyatt. The transition period between 
the one influence and the other is of great interest, 
and is connected with the names of Hawes and 
Skelton. 

Stephen Hawks, in the reign of Henry VH., re- 
presented the transition by an imitation of the old 
work. Amid many poems, more imitative of Lyd- 
gate than of Chaucer, his long allegorical poem, en- 
titled the Fas twie of Pleasure, is the best. In fact, it 
is the first, since the middle of the fifteenth century, 
in which Imagination again began to plume her wings 
and soar. Within the realm of art, it corresponded to 
that eflbrt to resuscitate the dead body of the Old 
Chivalry which Henry VIII. and Francis I. attempted. 
It goes back for its inspiration to the Romance of the 
Rose, and is an allegory of the right education of a 
knight, showing how Grand Amour won at last La 
Bel Pacell. But, like all false resurrections, it died 
quickly. 

On the other hand, John Skelton represents the 
transition by at first following the old poetry, and then, 
pressed upon by the storm of human life in the pre- 
sent, by taking an original line. His imitative poetry 
belongs mostly to Henry VII/s time, but when the 
religious and political disturbances began in Henry 
VIIL's time, Skelton became excited by the cry of the 



III.] FROM CHAUCER TO ELIZABETH. 6i 

people for Church reformation. His poem, Why 
come ye not to Court '^ was a fierce satire on the great 
Cardinal. That of Colin Clout was the cry of the 
country Colin, and of the Clout or mechanic of the 
town against the corruption of the Church ; and it 
represents the whole popular feeling of the time just 
before the movement of the Reformation took a new 
turn from the opposition of the Pope to Henry's 
divorce. Both are written in short ^'rude rayling 
rimes, pleasing only the popular ear," and Skelton 
chose them for that purpose. Both have a rough, 
impetuous power ; their language is coarse, full even 
of slang, but Skelton could use any language he 
pleased. He was an admirable scholar. Erasmus 
calls him the " glory and light of EngUsh letters," and 
Caxton says that he improved our language. His 
poem, the Bowge of Court (rewards of court), is full of 
powerful satire against the corruption of the times, 
and of vivid impersonations of the virtues and vices. 
But he was not only the satirist. The pretty and new 
love lyrics that we owe to him foreshadow the Eliza- 
bethan imagination and life ; and the Boke of Phyllyp 
Sparowe^ which tells the grief of a nun called Jane 
Scrope for the death of her sparrow, in one of the 
gayest and most inventive poems in the language. 
Skelton stands quite alone between the decay of the 
direct influence of Chaucer, whose last true imitator he 
was, and the rise of a new Italian influence in England 
in the poems of Surrey and Wyatt. In his own special 
work he was entirely original, and standing thus be- 
tween two periods of poetry, he is a kind of landmark 
in English Hterature. The Ship of Fooles, 1508, by 
Barclay, is of this time, but it has no value. It is a 
recast of a work published at Basel. It was popular 
because it attacked the follies and questions of the 
time. Its sole interest to us is in its pictures of 
familiar manners and popular customs. But Barclay 
did other work, and he was the first who brought the 



62 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

eclogue into England. With him the transition time 
is over, and the curtain is ready to rise on the EHza- 
bethan age of poetry. While we wait, we will make an 
interlude out of the work of the poets of Scotland, 



SCOTTISH POETRY. 

50. Scottish Poetry is poetry written in the 
English tongue by men living in Scotland. These 
men, though calling themselves Scotchmen, are of 
good English blood. But the blood, as I think, was 
mixed with an infusion of Celtic blood. 

Old Northumbria extended from the Humber to 
the Firth of Forth, leaving however on its western 
border a Hne of unconquered land, which took in 
Lancashire, Cumberland, and Westmorland in our 
England, and, over the border, most of the western 
country between the Clyde and Sol way Firth. This 
unconquered country was the Welsh kingdom of 
Strathclyde, and was dwelt in by the Celtic race. 
The present English part of it was soon conquered 
and the Celts driven out. But in the part to the north 
of the Solway Firth the Celts were not driven out. 
They remained, lived with the Englishmen who were 
settled over the old Northumbria, intermarried with 
them and became under Scot kings one mixed 
people. Literature in the Lowlands then would have 
Celtic elements in it; literature in England was 
purely Teutonic. The one sprang from a mixed, the 
other from an unmixed race. I draw attention to this, 
because it seems to me to account for certain peculi- 
arities which, especially Celtic, are infused through the 
whole of Scottish poetry. 

51. Celtic Elements of Scottish Poetry. — 
The first of these is the love of wild nature for its 
own sake. There is a passionate, close, and poetical 
observation and description of natural scenery in 
Scotland from the earliest times of its poetry, such 



III.] FROM CHAUCER TO ELIZABETH, (^'^ 

as we do not possess in English poetry till the time of 
Wordsworth. The second is the love of colour. All 
early Scottish poetry differs from English in the ex- 
traordinary way in which colour is insisted on, and 
at times in the lavish exaggeration of it. The third 
is the wittier and coarser humour in the Scottish poe- 
try, which is distinctly Celtic in contrast with that 
humour which has its root in sadness and which be- 
longs to the Teutonic races. Few things are really 
more different than the humour of Chaucer and the 
humour of Dunbar, than the humour of Cowper and 
the humour of Burns. These are the special Celtic 
elements in the Lowland poetry. 

52. Its National Elements came into it from 
the circumstances under which Scotland rose into a 
separate kingdom. The first of these is the strong, 
almost fierce assertion of national life. The Eng- 
lish were as national as the Scots, and felt the emo- 
tion of patriotism as strongly. But they had no 
need to assert it ; they were not oppressed. But for 
nearly forty years the Scotch resisted for their very life 
the efforts of England to conquer them. And the 
war of freedom left its traces on their poetry from 
Barbour to Burns and Walter Scott in the almost ob- 
trusive way in which Scotland, and Scottish liberty, 
and Scottish heroes are thrust forward in their verse. 
Their passionate nationality appears in another form 
in their descriptive poetry. The natural description 
of Chaucer. Shakspere, or even Milton, is not dis- 
tinctively English. But in Scotland it is always the 
scenery of their own land that the poets describe. 
Even when they are imitating Chaucer they do not 
imitate his conventional landscape. They put in a 
Scotch landscape ; and in the work of such men as 
Gawin Douglas the love of Scotland and the love of 
nature mingle their influences together to make him 
sit down, as it were, to paint, with his eye on every- 
thing he paints, a series of Scotch landscapes. 



€4 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

53. Its Individual Element. — There is one 
more special element in early Scotch poetry which 
arose, I think, out of its political circumstances. 
All through the struggle for freedom, carried on 
as it was at first by small bands under separate 
leaders till they all came together under a leader 
Hke Bruce, a much greater amount of individuality, 
and a greater habit of it, was created among the 
Scotch than among the English. Men fought for 
their own land and lived in their own way. Every 
little border chieftain, almost every border farmer 
was or felt himself to be his own master. The 
poets would be likely to share in this individual 
quality, and in spite of the overpowering influence of 
Chaucer, to strike out new veins of poetic thought and 
riKtw methods of poetic expression. And this is what 
happened. Long before forms of poetry like the 
short pastoral or the fable had appeared in England, 
the Scottish poets had started them. They were less 
docile imitators than the English, but their work in 
the new forms they started was not so good as the 
after English work in the same forms. 

54. The first of the Scottish poets, omitting Thomas 
of Erceldoune, is John Barbour, Archbishop of 
Aberdeen. His long poem of The Bruce, 1375-7, 
represents the- whole of the eager struggle for 
Scottish freedom against the English which closed 
at Bannockburn ; and the national spirit, which I 
have mentioned, springs in it, full grown, . into life. 
But it is temperate, it does not pass into the fury 
against England, which is so plain in writers like 
Blind Harry, who, about 1461, composed a long 
poem in the heroic couplet of Chaucer on the deeds 
of William Wallace. Barbour was often in England 
for the sake of study, and his patriotism though strong 
is tolerant of England. In Henry V.'s reign, Andrew 
OF Wyntoun wrote his Orygi?iale Cro7iykil of Scot- 
land, one of the riming chronicles of the time. It is 



III.] FROM CHAUCER TO ELIZABETH. 65 

only in the next poet that we find the influence 
of Chaucer, and it is hereafter continuous till the 
EUzabethan time. James the First of Scotland 
was prisoner in England for nineteen years, till 1422. 
There he read Chaucer, and fell in love with Lady 
Jane Beaufort, niece of Henry IV. The poem which 
he wrote — The King's Quhair (the quire or book)-— is 
done in imitation of Chaucer, and in Chaucer's seven- 
lined stanza, which from James's use of it is called 
Rime Royal. In six cantos, sweeter, tenderer, and 
purer than any verse till we come to. Spenser, he 
describes the beginning of his love and its happy end. 
** I must write," he says, ^^ so much because I have 
come so from Hell to Heaven." Nor did the flower 
of his love and hers ever fade. She defended him in 
the last ghastly scene of murder when his kingly life 
ended. Though imitative of Cha,ucer, his work has 
an original element in it The natural description is 
more varied, the colour is more vivid, and there is a 
modern self-reflective quality, a touch of spiritual feel- 
ing which does not belong to Chaucer at all. The 
poems of The Kirk on the Green and Peebles to the 
Play have been attributed to him. If they be his, 
he originated a new vein of poetry, which Burns 
afterwards carried out — the comic and satirical 
ballad poem. But they are more likely to be by 
James V. 

Robert Henryson, who died before 1508, a school- 
master in DunfermUne, was also an imitator of Chaucer, 
and his Testa?7ient of Cresseid continues Chaucer's 
Troilus. But he set on foot two new forms of poetry. 
He made poems out of \hQ fables. They differ entirely 
from the short, neat form in which Gay and La Fon- 
taine treated the fable. They are long stories, full of 
pleasant dialogue, political allusions, and with elabo- 
rate morals attached to them. They have a peculiar 
Scottish tang, and are full of descriptions of Scotch 
scenery. He also began the short pastoral in his 



66 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

Robin and Makyjie, It is a natural, prettily- turned 
dialogue ; and a flashing Celtic wit, such as charms us 
\n Duncan Grey^xwxi'^ through it. The individuality 
which struck out two original lines of poetic work in 
these poems appears again in his sketch of the graces 
of womanhood in the Ga?'ment of Good Ladies; a. 
poem of the same type as those thoughtful lyrics 
which describe what is best in certain phases of 
professions, or of life, such as Sir H. Wotton's Character 
of a Happy Life, or Wordsworth's LLappy Warrior, 

But among many poets whom we need not mention, 
the greatest is William Dunbar. He carries the 
influence of Chaucer on to the end of the fifteenth cen- 
tury and into the sixteenth. Few have possessed a more 
masculine genius, and his work was as varied in its 
range as it was original. He followed the form and 
plan of Chaucer in his two poems of The Thistle and 
the Rose, i5^3» and the Golden Terge, 1508, the first 
on the marriage of James IV. to Margaret Tudor, the 
second an allegory of Love, Beauty, Reason, and the 
poet. In both, though they begin with Chaucer's 
conventional May morning, the natural description 
becomes Scottish, and in both the national enthusiasm 
of the poet is strongly marked. But he soon ceased 
to imitate. The vigorous fun of the satires and the 
satirical ballads that he wrote is only matched by their 
coarseness, a coarseness and a fun that descended to 
Burns. Perhaps Dunbar's genius is still higher in a 
wild poem in which he personifies the seven deadly 
sins, and describes their dance, with a mixture of 
horror and humour which makes the little thing 
unique. 

A man almost as remarkable as Dunbar is Gawin 
Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, who died in 1522, at 
the Court of Henry VIII., and was buiied in the 
Savoy. He is the author of the first metrical English 
translation from the original of any Latin book. He 
translated Ovid's Art of L.ove, and afterwards, with 



Ill,] FROM CHAUCER TO ELIZABETH. 67 

truth and spirit, the ^^neids of Vergil, 15 13. To each 
book of the /^neid Is wrote a prologue of his own. 
And it is chiefly by these that he takes rank among 
the Scottish poets. Three of them are descriptions 
of the country in May, in Autumn, and in Winter. 
The scenery is altogether Scotch, and the few 
Chaucerisras that appear seem absurdly out of place 
in a picture of nature which is as close as if it had 
been done by Keats in his early time. The colour is 
superb, the landscape is described with an excessive 
detail, but it is not composed by any art into a whole. 
There is nothing like it in England till Thomson's 
Seasons, and Thomson was a Scotchman. Only the 
Celtic love of nature can account for the vast distance 
between work W'le this and contemporary work in 
England such as Skelton's. Of Douglas's other origi- 
nal work, one poem, the Palace of Honour^ 150 1, 
continues the influence of Chaucer. 

Th^re were a number of other Scottish poets who 
are all remembered by Dunbar in his Lamejit fo?' the 
Makars, and praised by Sir David Lyndsay, whom 
it is best to mention in this place, because he still 
connects Scotdsh poetry with Chaucer. He was born 
about 1490, and is the last of the old Scottish school, 
and the most popular. He is the most popular 
because he is not only the Poet, but also the Reformer. 
His poem the Dreme^ 1528, links him back to 
Chaucer. It is in the manner of the old poet. But 
its scenery is Scottish, and instead of the May morn- 
ing of Chaucer, it opens on a winter's day of wind 
and sleet. The place is a cave over the sea, whence 
Lyndsay sees the weltering of the ocean, Chaucer 
goes to sleep over Ovid or Cicero, Lyndsay falls 
into a dream as he thinks of the '* false world's insta- 
bility," wavering like the sea waves. The difference 
marks not only the difference of the two countries, 
but the different natures of the men. Chaucer did 
not care much for the popular storms, and loved the 



68 ENGLISH LITER A TURE [chap. 

Court more than the Commonweal. Lyndsay in the 
Dreme and in two other poems — the Complaint to the 
King^ and the Testament of the King's Fapyjigo — is 
absorbed in the evils and sorrows of the people, in 
the desire to reform the abuses of the Church, of the 
Court, of party, of the nobihty. In 1539 his Satire 
of the Three Estates, a Morality interspersed with 
interludes, was represented before James V. at Lin- 
lithgow. It was first acted in 1535, and was a daring 
attack on the ignorance, profligacy, and exactions of 
the priesthood, on the vices and flattery of the 
favourites — " a mocking of abuses used in the country 
by diverse sorts of estates.'' A still bolder poem, and 
one thought so even by himself, is the Monarchie, 
1553, his last work. Reformer as he was, he was 
more a social and political than a religious one. He 
bears the same relation to Knox as Langland did to 
Wiclif. When he was sixty-five years old he saw the 
fruits of his work. Ecclesiastical councils met to 
reform the Church. But the reform soon went beyond 
his temperate wishes. In 1557, the Reformation in 
Scodand was fairly launched, w^hen in December the 
Congregation signed the Bond of Association. 
Lyndsay had died three years before ; he is as much 
the reformer, as he is the poet, of a transition time. 
"Still his verse hath charms," but it was neither sweet 
nor imaginative. He had genuine satire, great moral 
breadth, much preaching power in verse, coarse, 
broad humour in plenty, and more dramatic power 
and invention than the rest of his fellows. 

55. Italian Influence : Wyatt and Surrey. — 
While poetry under Skelton and Lyndsay became an 
instrument of reform, it revived as an art at the close 
of Henry VIII.'s reign in Sir Thomas Wyatt and 
the Earl of Surrey. They were both Italian 
travellers, and in bringing back to England the inspira- 
tion they had gained from Petrarca they re-made 
English poetry. They are our first really modern 



III.] FROM CHAUCER TO ELIZABETH, 69 

poets ; the first who have anything of the modem 
manner. Though ItaHan in sentiment, their language 
is more Enghsh than Chaucer's, that is, they use fewer 
romance words. They handed down this purity of 
EngUsh to the Elizabethan poets, to Sackville, Spenser, 
and Shakspere. They introduced a new kind of 
poetry, the amourist poetry. The *' amourists," 
as they are called, were poets who composed a 
series of poems on the subject of love — sonnets 
mingled with lyrical pieces after the manner of 
Petrarca, and in accord with the love philosophy 
he built on Plato. The Hundred Passio7is of Watson, 
the sonnets of Sidney, Shakspere, Spenser, and Drum- 
mond, are all poems of this kind, and the same 
impulse in a similar form appears in the sonnets of 
Rossetti and of Mrs. Browning. The subjects of 
Wyatt and Surrey were chiefly lyrical, and the fact 
that they imitated the same model has made some 
likeness between them. Like their personal characters, 
however, the poetry of Wyatt is the more thoughtful and 
the more strongly felt, but Surrey's has a sweeter move- 
ment and a livelier fancy. Both did this great thing 
for English verse — they chose an exquisite model, and 
in imitating it ^' corrected the ruggedness of English 
poetry." Such verse as Skelton's became impossible. 
A new standard was made below which the after poets 
could not fall. They also added new stanza mea- 
sures to Enghsh verse, and enlarged in this way the 
" lyrical range." Surrey was the first, in his trans- 
lation of the Second and Fourth Books of Vergil's 
JEneid^ to use the ten syllabled, unrimed verse, 
which we now call blank verse. In his hands 
it is not worthy of praise; it had neither the true 
form nor harmony into which it grew afterwards. 
Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, introduced it into drama ; 
Marlowe, in his Tamburlatne, made it the proper 
verse of the drama, and Shakspere, Beaumont, and 
Massinger used it splendidly. In plays it has a 



70 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [CHAP. 

special manner of its own ; in poetry proper it was, 
we may say, not only created but perfected by 
Milton. 

The new impulse thus given to poetry was all but 
arrested by the bigotry that prevailed during the 
reigns of Edward VI. and Mary, and all the work of 
the New Learning seemed to be useless. But Thomas 
Wilson's book in English on Rhetoric and Logic in 
1553, and the publication of Thomas Tusser's Fointes 
of Husbandrie and of Tottel's Miscellany of Uncertain 
Authors, 1557, in the last years of Mary's reign, 
proved that something was stirring beneath the gloum. 
The latter book contained the poems of Surrey and 
Wyatt, and others by Grimoald, by Lord Vaux, 
and Lord Berners. The date should be remembered, 
for it is the first printed book of modern English 
poetry. It proves that men cared now more for the 
new than the old poets, that the time of imitation of 
Chaucer was over, and that of original creation begun.. 
It ushers in the Elizabethan literature. 



ivj LITERATURE OF ELIZABETH'S REIGN, 71 
CHAPTER IV. 

THE LITERATURE OF ELIZABETH'S REIGN, 1559 — 1603 

oackville's Mirror of Magistrates^ 1559. — Lyly's Euphues. — 
Spenser's Shepheardes Calender^ 1579. — Sidney's Arcadia^ 
1580 — Hooker's Ecclesiastical Fulity^ 1594. — Bacon's 
Essays^ 1597> Spenser born, 1552 ; Faerie Queen^ 1590- 
1595; died, 1598.— W. Warner's, S. Daniel's, M. Dray- 
ton's historical poems, 1595-1598. — Sir J. Davies's and 
Lord ^xodk&?> philosophical poems, 1599-1620. 

The Drama. — First Mn-acle i'iay, 1110. — Interludes of J. 
Heywood, 1530. — First English Comedy, 1540 ?— First 
English Tragedy, 1562.— First English Theatre, 1576.— 
Marlowe's Famburlaine, 1587. — Shakspere born, 1564; 
Love's Lahours Lost^ 1588 ; Merchant of Venice, 1596 ; 
Hamlet, 1602; Cymbeline, 1610; Henry VIII, 1613; 
died, 1616. — Ben Jonson begins work, 1596; dies, 
1637' — Beaumont and Fletcher in James I.'s reign. 

Webster's first Play, 1612. — Massinger beg-ins, 1620 ; dies, 
1639.— John Ford's first PJay, 16z9.— James Shirley, last 
Elizabethan Dramatist, lives to 1666 ; Theatre closed, 
1642 ; opens again, 1656. 

56. Elizabethan Literature, as a literature, 
may be said to begin with Surrey and Wyatt. But 
as their poems were published shortly before Elizabeth 
came to the throne, we date the beginning of the 
early period of Ehzabethan Hterature from the year 
of her accession, 1559. That period lasted till 
1579, and was followed by the great literary out- 
burst of the days of Spenser and Shakspere. The 
apparent suddenness of this outburst has been an 
object of wonder. Men have searched for its 
causes, chiefly in the causes which led to the 
revival of learning, and no doubt these bore on 
England as they did on the whole of Europe. But we 
shall best seek its nearest causes in the work done 



^2 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [cHAP. 

during the early years of Elizabeth, and in doing so 
we shall find that the outburst was not so sudden after 
all It was preceded by a very various, plentiful, but 
inferior literature, in which new forms of poetry and 
prose- writing were tried, and new veins of thought 
opened, which were afterwards wrought out fully and 
splendidly. All the germs of the coming age are to 
be found in thesetwenty years. The outburst of a 
plant into flower seems sudden, but the whole growth 
of the plant has caused it, and the flowering of 
Elizabethan literature was the slow result of the 
growth of the previous literature and the influences 
that bore upon it. 

57. First Elizabethan Period, 1559-1579.-^ 
(i.) The literary prose of the beginning of this time is 
represented by the Scholeniaster of Ascham, published 
1570. This book, which is on education, is the work 
of the scholar of the new learning of the reign of 
Henry VIII. who has lived on into another period. It 
is not, properly speaking, Elizabethan ; it is like a 
stranger in a new land and among new manners. 

(2.) Poetry is first represented by Sackville, Lord 
Buckhurst. The Mirror of Magistrates^ ^559* ^o^^ 
which he wrote the Induction and one tale, is a poem 
on the model of Boccaccio's Falls of Princes, already 
imitated by Lydgate. Seven poets, along with 
Sackville, contributed tales to it, but his poem is the 
only one of any value. The Induction paints the 
poet's descent into Avernus, and his meeting with 
Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, whose fate he 
tells with a grave and inventive imagination. Being 
written in the manner and stanza of the elder poets, 
this poem has been called the transition between 
Lydgate and Spenser. But it does not truly belong 
to the old time ; it is as modern as Spenser, and its 
allegorical representations are in the same manner as 
those of Spenser. George Gascoigne, whose satire, 
the Steele Glas, 1576, is our first long satirical poem, is 



IV.] LITERATURE OF ELIZABETH'S REIGN, 73 

the best among a crowd of lesser poets who came 
after Sackviile. They wrote legends, pieces on the 
wars and discoveries of the Englishmen of their day, 
epitaphs, epigrams, songs, sonnets, elegies, fables, and 
sets of love poems ; and the best things they did were 
collected in a miscellany called the Faradise of Dainty 
Devices^ in 1576. This book, with Tottel's, set on 
foot in the later years of Elizabeth a crowed of other 
miscellanies of poetry which were of great use to the 
poetSo Lyrical poetry, and that which we may call 
"occasional poetry,'' were now fairly started. The 
popular Ballads took a wide range. The registers of 
the Stationers' Company prove that there w^as scarcely 
any event of the day, nor almost any controversy in 
literature, politics, religion, which was not the subject 
of ver^^e, and of verse into which imagination strove 
to enter. The ballad may be said to have done the 
work of the modern weekly review. It stimulated 
and informed the intellectual life of England. 

(3.) Frequent translations were now made from the 
classical writers. We know the names of more than 
twelve men who did this work, and there must have 
been many more. Already in Henry VII L's and 
Edward VI.'s time, ancient authors had been made 
English; and before 1579, Vergil, Ovid, Cicero, 
Demosthenes, and many Greek and Latin plays, 
were translated. Among the rest, Phaer's Vergil^ ^5^2, 
Arthur Golding's Ovid's Metajn, 1565, and George 
Turberville's Hist. Epis, of Ovid, 1567, are, and especi- 
ally the first, remarkable. In this way the best models 
were brought before the Enghsh people, and it is in 
the influence of the spirit of Greek and Roman 
literature on literary form and execution that we 
are to find one of the most active causes of the 
greatness of the later Elizabethan literature. Nor 
w^ere the old English poets neglected. Though 
Chaucer, and Lydgate, Langland and the rest, were 
no longer imitated in this time of fresh creation, they 



74 ENGLISH LITER A TURE, [chap. 

were studied, and they added their impulse of life to 
original poets like Spenser. 

(4.) Theological Beform stirred men to another 
kind of literary work. A great number of polemical 
ballads, and pamphlets, and plays issued every year 
from obscure presses and filled the land. Poets like 
George Gascoigne, and still mere Barnaby Googe, re- 
present in their work the hatred the young men had 
of the old religious system. It was a spirit which 
did not do much for literature, -but it quickened the 
habit of composition, and made it easier. The Bible 
also became common property, and its language 
glided into all theological writing and gave it a literary 
tone ; while the publication of John Foxe's Acts and 
Monuments or Book of Martyrs^ ^S^3> gave to the 
people all over England a book which, by its simple 
style, the ease of its story-telling, and its popular charm 
made the very peasants who heard it read feel what 
is meant by literature. 

(5.) The history of the country and its manners was 
not neglected. A whole class of antiquarians wrote 
steadily, if with some dulness, on this subject. 
Grafton, Stow^, Holinshed and others, at least sup- 
plied materials for the study and use of the historical 
dramatists. 

(6.) The love of stories grew quickly. The old 
English tales and ballads were eagerly read and 
collected. Italian tales by various authors were 
translated and sow^n so broadcast over London by 
William Painter irx his collection, The Palace of 
Pleasure, 1566, by George Turbervile, in his Tragical 
Tales in verse, and by others, that it is said they 
ivere to be bought at every bookstall. The Romances 
of Spain and Italy poured in, and Amadis de Gaul, 
and the companion romances the Arcadia of Sanna- 
zaro, and the Ethiopian History, were sources of 
books like Sidney's Arcadia and, wdth the classics, sup- 
plied materials for the pageants. A great number of 



IV.] LITERATURE OF ELIZABETH'S REIGN, 75 

subjects for prose and poetry were thus made ready 
for literary men, and prose fiction became possible in 
English literature. 

(7.) The masques^ pa^^eants^ interludes^ and plays 
that were written at this time are scarcely to be 
counted. At every great ceremonial, whenever the 
queen made a progress or visited one of the great 
lords or a university, at the houses of the nobility, 
and at the court on all important days, some obscure 
versifier, or a young scholar at the Inns of Court, at 
Oxford or at Cambridge, produced a masque or a 
pageant, or wrote or translated a play. The habit of 
play-writing became common ; a kind of school, one 
might almost say a manufacture of plays, arose, which 
partly accounts for the rapid production, the excellence, 
and the multitude of plays that we find after 1576. Re- 
presented all over England, these masques, pageants, 
and dramas were seen by the people, who were thus 
accustomed to take an interest, though of an unedu- 
cated kind, in the larger drama that was to follow. 
The literary men on the other hand ransacked, in 
order to find subjects and scenes for their pageants, 
ancient and mediaeval, magical, and modern litera- 
ture, and many of them in doing so became fine 
scholars. The imagination of England was quickened 
and educated in this way, and as Biblical stories were 
also largely used, the images of oriental life were 
added to the materials of imagination. 

(8.) Another influence bore on literature. It was 
that given by the stories of the voyagers, who, in the 
new commercial activity of the country, penetrated 
into strange lands, and saw the strange monsters and 
savages which the poets now added to the fairies, 
dwarfs, and giants of the Romances. Before 1579, 
books had been published on the north-west passage. 
Frobisher had made his voyages and Drake had 
started, to return in 1580 to amaze all England with 
the story of his sail round the world and of the riches 



76 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

of the Spanish Main. We may trace everywhere in 
EHzabethan literature the impression made by the 
wonders told by the sailors and captains who ex- 
plored and fought from the North Pole to the 
Southern Seas, 

(9.) Lastly, we have proof that there was a large 
number of persons 7iiriting who did not publish their 
works. It was considered at this time, that to write 
for the public injured a man, and unless he w^ere 
driven by poverty he kept his manuscript by him. But 
things were changed when a great genius hke Spenser 
took the w^orld by storm ; when Lyly's Euphues en- 
chanted the whole of court society; w^hen a great 
gentleman like Sir Philip Sidney became a wiiter. 
Literature was made the fashion, and the disgrace 
being taken from it, the production became enormous. 
Manuscripts written and laid by were at once sent 
forth ; and when the rush began it grew by its own 
force. Those who had previously been kept from 
writing by its unpopularity now took it up eagerly, 
and those who had written before wTOte twice as 
much now. The great improvement also in literary 
quaUty is easily accounted for by this — that men 
strove to equal such work as Sidney's or Spenser's, and 
that a wider and more exacting criticism arose. Nor 
must one omit to say, that owing to this employment 
of life on so vast a number of subjects, and to the 
voyages, and to the new literatures searched into, and 
to the heat of theological strife, a multitude of new 
words streamed into the language, and enriched the 

\\ vocabulary of imagination. Shakspere uses 15,000 

'v\^rds. 

58. The Later Literature of Elizabeth's 
Reign, 1579-1602, begins with the publication of 
Lyly's Euphues and Spenser's Shepheardes Calendar, 
both in 1579, and with the writing of Sir Philip 
Sidney's Arcadia and his Defence of Foetrie, 1580-81. 
It will be best to leave the poem of Spenser aside till 



iv. ] LITERA TURE OF ELIZABETH 'S REIGN, 77 

we come to write of the poets. The Euphues and the 
Arcadia carried on the story- telling literature ; the 
Defence of Foetrie created a new form of literature, 
that of criticism. 

Tne Euphues was the work of John Lyly, poet and 
dramatist. It is in tv/o parts, Euphues the Anatomie 
of Wit, and Euphues and his Eiigland. In six 
years it ran through five editions, so great was its 
popularity. Its prose style is too poetic, but is 
admirable for its smoothness and charm, and its 
very faults were of use in softening the rudeness 
of previous prose. The story is long, and is more 
a loose framework into which Lyly could fit his 
thoughts on love, friendship, education, and religion, 
than a true story. The second part brings Euphues, 
the young Athenian, to England through Dover and 
Canterbury to London, and is filled up with two 
stories ; . and supplemented by Euphues' Glass for 
Europe, It made its mark because it fell in with 
all the fantastic and changeable life of the time. Its 
far-fetched conceits, its extravagance of gallantry, its 
endless metaphors from the classics and natural 
history, its curious and gorgeous descriptions of dress, 
and its pale imitation of chivalry, were all reflected in 
the life and talk and dress of the court of Elizabeth. 
It became the fashion to talk " Euphuism," and, Hke 
the Utopia of More, Lyly's book has created an 
English word. 

The Arcadia was the work of Sir Philip Sidney, 
and though written in 1580, did not appear till after 
his death. It ^ is more poetic in style than the 
Euphues, and Sidney himself, as he wrote it under the 
^rees of Wilton, would have called it a pastoral poem. 
It is less the image of the time than of the man. We 
all know that bright and noble figure, the friend of 
Spenser, the lover of Stella, the last of the old knights, 
the poet, the critic, and the Christian, who, wounded 
to the death, gave up the cup of water to a dying 



78 ENGLISH LITER A TURE, [chap. 

soldier. We find his whole spirit in the story of the 
Arcadia^ in the fir^t two books and part of the third, 
which alone were written by him. It is a romance 
mixed up with pastoral stories, after the fashion of 
the Spanish romances. The characters are real, but 
the story is confused by endless digressions. The 
sentiment is too fine and delicate for the world. The 
descripdons are picturesque and the sentences made 
as perfect as possible. A quaint or poetic thought or 
an epigram appear in every line. There is no real art 
in it, or in its prose. But it is so full of poetical 
thought that it became a mine into which poets dug 
for subjects. 

59. Criticism began with Sidney's A?^t of Poetrie. 
Its style shows us that he felt how faulty the prose of 
the Arcadia was. The book made a new step in the 
creation of a dignified English prose. It is still too 
flowery, but in it the fantastic prose of his own Arcadia 
and of the Euphues dies. As criticism, it is chiefly 
concerned wdth poetry. It defends, against Stephen 
Gosson's School of Abuse, in which poetry and plays 
were attacked from the Puritan point of view, the 
nobler uses of poetry. Sackville, Surrey, and Spenser 
are praised, and the other poets made little of in its 
pages. It was followed by Webbe's Discourse of 
English Poetrie written " to stirre up some other of 
meet abilitie to bestow travell on the matter." Already 
the other was travailing, and the Arte of English 
Poesie, supposed to be written by George Puttenham, 
was published in 1589. It is the most elaborate book 
on the whole subject in Elizabeth's reign, and it marks 
the strong interest now taken in poetry in the highest 
society that the author says he writes it '*to help the 
courtiers and the gentlewomen of the court to write 
good poetry, that the art may become vulgar for all 
Englishmt n's use." 

60. Later Prose Literature, — (i.) Theological 
'Literature r^^nnqined for some years after 1580 only 



IV.] LITERATURE OF ELIZABETH'S REIGISr, 79 

a literature of pamphlets. Puritanism in its attack 
on the stage, and in the Martin Marprelate con- 
troversy upon episcopal government in the Church, 
flooded England with small books. Lord Bacon 
even joined in the latter controversy, and Nash the 
dramatist made himself famous in the war by the 
vigour and fierceness of his wit. Over this troubled 
sea rose at last the stately work of Richard 
Hooker. It w^as in 1594 that the first four books 
of The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity^ a defence of 
the Church against the Puritans, were given to the 
w^orld. Before his death he finished the other four. 
The book has remained ever since a standard work. 
It is as much moral and pohtical as theological. Its 
style is grave, clear, and often musical. He adorned 
it with the figures of poetry, but he used them with 
temperance, and the grand and rolUng rhetoric with 
which he oftjn concludes an argument is kept for its 
right place. On the whole, it is the first monument of 
splendid literary prose that we possess, 

(2.) We may place alongside of it, as the other 
great prose work of KHzabjth's later time, the de- 
velopment of The Essay in Lord Bacon's Essays, 
1597. Their highest literary merit is their combina- 
tion of charm and even of poetic prose with concise- 
ness of expression and fulness of thought. The rest 
of Bacon^s work belongs to the following reign. 

(3.) T/ie Literature of Travel was carried on by 
the publication in 1589 of H/kluyt's Navigation, 
Voyages, and Discoveries of the Engt ish Nation, lire 
influence of a compilation of this kind, containing the 
great deeds of the English on the seas, has been felt 
ever since in the literature of fiction and poetry. 

(4 ) In the Tales, which pourt d out like a flood 
from thj dramatists, from such men as Peele, and 
Lodg3, and Greer e, w^e find the origin of EngHsh 
fiction, and tlu subjects of many of our pbys ; while 
the fantastic desire to revive the practices oSf chivalry 



8o ENGLISH LITERATURE. [c«ap 

which was expressed in the Arcadia^ found food in the 
continuous translation of romances, chiefly of the 
Charlemagne cycle, but now more from Spain than 
from France ; and in the reading of the Italian poets, 
Boiardo, Tasso, and x\riosto, who supplied a crowd of 
our books with the machinery of magic, and with 
conventional descriptions of nature and of women's 
beauty. 

6r. Edmund Spenser. — The later Elizabethan 
poetry begins with the Shepheardes Calendar of 
Spenser. Spenser was born in London in 1552, 
and educated at the Merchant Taylors' Grammar 
School which he left for Cambridge in April, 1569. 
There seems to be evidence that in this year the 
Sonnets of Petrarca and the Visions of Bella}\ after- 
wards published in 1591, were written by him for a 
miscellany of verse and prose issued by Vander Noodt, 
a refugee Flemish physician. At sixteen or seven- 
teen then he began literary work. At college, Gabriel 
Harvey, a scholar and critic, and the Hohbinoll of 
Spenser's works, and Edward Kirke, the E. K of the 
Shepheardes Calendar^ were his friends. In 1576 he 
took his degree of M.A., and before he returned 
to London spent some time in the wilds of Lanca- 
shire, where he fell in love with the " Rosalind '' 
of his poetry, a *'fair widowe's daughter of the 
glen." His love was not returned, a rival inter- 
fered, but he clung fast until his marriage to this 
early passion. His disappointment drove him to the 
South, and there, 1579, he was made known through 
Leicester to Leicester's nephew, Philip Sidney. With 
him, and perhaps at Penshurst, the Shepheardes Calendar 
was finished for the press, and the Fae?'ie Queen con- 
ceived. The publication of the former work made 
Spenser the first poet of the day, and so fresh and 
musical, and so abundant in new life were its twelve 
eclogues, that men felt that at last England had given 
birth to a poet as original as Chaucer. Each month 



IV.] LITERATURE OF ELIZABETH'S REIGN, 8i 

of the year had its own eclogue; some were concerned 
with his sh ittered love, two of tliem were fables, three 
of them satires on the lazy clergy ; one was devoted 
to fair Eliza's praise. The others belong to rustic 
shepherd Hfe. The English of Chaucer is imitated, 
but the work is full of a new spirit, and as Spensei 
had begun with translating Petrarca, so here, ir 
two of the eclogues, he imitates Clement Marot 
The ''Puritanism " of the poem is the same as that 
of the Faerie Queen. Save in abhorrence of Rome, 
Spenser does not share in the poHtics of Puritanism. 
Nor does he separate himself from the world. He is 
as much at home in society and with the arts as any 
literary courtier of the day. He was Puritan in 
his attack on the sloth and pomp of the clergy ; but 
his moral ideal, built up, as it was, out of Christianity 
and Platonism, rose far above the narrower ideal of 
Puritanism. 

In the next year, 1580, he went to Ireland with 
Lord Grey of Wilton as secretary, and after- 
wards saw and learnt that condition of things which 
he described in his View of the Present State of Ire- 
land, He was made Clerk of Degrees in the Court 
of Chancery in 1581, and Clerk of the Council of 
Munster in 1586, and it was then that the manor and 
castle of Kilcolman were granted to him. Here, at 
the foot of the Galtees, and bordered to the north by 
the wild country, the scenery of which fills the Faerit 
Quee7t, and in whose woods and savage places sucl^ 
adventures constantly took place in the service ol 
Elizabeth as are recorded in the Faerie Qiieen^ th^ 
first three books of that great poem were written. 

62. The Faerie Queen. — The plan of the poem, 
so impossible to discover from the poem itself, ia 
described in Spenser's prefatory letter to Raleigh. 
The twelve books were to tell the warfare of twelve 
Knights, in whom the twelve virtues of Aristotle were 
represented; and their warfare was against the vices 



82 : ENGLISH LITERATURE. '' " Ichap. 

and errors, impersonated, which opposed those virtues. 
In Arthur, the Prince — for the machinery of the poem 
is from the old Celtic story — the Magnificence of the 
whole of virtue is represented, and he was at last to 
unite himself in marriage to the Faerie Queen, that 
divine glory of God to which all human act and 
thought aspired. Six books of this plan were finished ; 
the legends of Holiness, Temperance, and Chastity, 
of Friendship, Justice, and Courtesy. The two post- 
humous cantos on Mutability seem to have been part 
of the seventh legend, on Constancy. Alongside of 
the spiritual allegory is the historical one, in which 
Elizabeth is Gloriana, and Mary of Scotland is Duessa, 
and Leicester, and at times Sidney, is Prince Arthur, 
aad Arthegall is Lord Grey, and Raleigh is Timias, and 
Philip IL the Soldan, or Grantorto. In the midst, other 
allegories slip in, referring to events of the day, and 
Elizabeth becomes Belphoebe and Britomart, and Mary 
is Radegund, and Sidney is Calidore, and Alengon is 
Braggadochio. The dreadful *^justicj" done in Irjland, 
by the *' iron man/' and the wars in Belgium, and 
Norfolk's conspiracy, and the Armada, and the trial 
of Mary are also shadowed forth. 

The allegory is cbar in the first two books. After- 
wards it is troubled with digressions, sub-allegories, 
genealogies, with anything that Spenser's fancy led 
him to introduce. Stories are dropt and never taken 
up again, and the whole tale is so tangled that it loses 
the interest of narrative. But it retains the interest 
of exquisita allegory. It is the poem of the noble 
powers of the human soul struggling towards union 
with God, and warring against all the forms of evil ; 
and these powers become real personages, whose lives 
and battles Spenser tells in verse so musical and so 
gliding, so delicately wrought, so rich in imaginative 
ornament, and so inspired with the finer life of beauty, 
that he has been called the poets' Poet. Descriptions 
like those of the House of Pride and the Mask of 



IV.] LITERATURE OF ELIZABETH'S REIGN. S3 

Cupid, and of the Months, are so vivid in form and 
colour, that they have always made subjects for artists; 
while the allegorical personages are, to the very last 
detail, wrought out by an imagination which describes 
not only the general character, but the special 
characteristics of the Virtues or the Vices, of the 
Months of the year, or of the Rivers of England. In 
its ideal whole, the poem represents the new love 
of chivalry, of classical learning ; the delight in 
mystic theories of love and religion, in allegorical 
schemes, in splendid spectacles and pageants, in wild 
adventure ; the love of England, the hatred of Spain, 
the strange worship of the Queen, even Spenser's own 
new love. It takes up and uses the popular legends 
of fairies, dwarfs, and giants, all the machinery of the 
Italian epics, and mingles them up with the wild 
scenery of Ireland and the savages and wonders 
X)f the New World. Almost the whole spirit of the 
Renaissance under Elizabeth, except its coarser and 
baser elements, is in its pages. Of anything impure, 
or ugly, or violent, there is no trace. And Spenser 
adds to all i.Is own sacred love of love, his own pre- 
eminent sense of the loveliness of loveliness, walking 
through the whole of this woven world of faerie — 

'* With the moon's beauty and the moon's soft pace," 

The first three books were finished in Ireland, and 
Raleigh hstened to them in 1589 at Kilcolman Castle, 
among the alder shades of the river Mulla ihat fed the 
Jake below .he castle. DeHghted with the poem, he 
brought Spenser to England, and the Queen, the court, 
and the whole of England soon shared in Raleigh's 
delight. It was the first great ideal poem .hat England 
had produced, and it is the .source of all our modern 
poetry. It has never ceased to make poets, and it 
will^ live, as he said in his dedication to the Queen, 
" with the eternitie of her fame.'' 



§4 - ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

63. Spenser's Minor Poems. — The next year, 
[591, Spenser being still in England, collected his 
Smaller poems and published them. Among them 
Mother Hubbard's Tale is a remarkable satire, some- 
tvhat in the manner of Chaucer, on society, on the 
evils of a beggar soldiery, of the Church, of the court, 
md of misgovernmeat. The Ruins of Time, and still 
more the Tears of the Muses, support the statement 
that literature was looked on coldly previous to 1580. 
Sidney had died in 1586, and three of these poems 
bemoan his death. The others are of slight importance, 
and the whole collection was entitled Complaints, Re- 
turning to Ireland, he gave an account of his visit and 
of the court of Elizabeth in Colin Cloufs come Home 
again, 1591, and at last, after more than a year's pur- 
suit, won his second love for his wife, and found with 
her perfect happiness. A long series of Sonnets 
records the i^rogress of his wooing, and the Epitha- 
lamium, his marriage hymn, is the most glorious love- 
song in the English tongue. At the close of 1595 he 
brought to England in a second visit the last three 
books of the Faerie Queen, The next year he spent 
in London, and published these books along with the 
Prothalamion on the marriage of Lord Worcester's 
daughters, the Daphnaida , and the Hymns on Love 
and Beauy and o?i Heavenly Love and Beauty, The 
two first hymns were written in his youth ; the two 
others, now written, enshrine that love philosophy 
of Petrarca which makes earthly love find its end 
in the love of God. The close of his life was 
sorrowful. In 1598, Tyrone's rebellion drove him 
out of Ireland. Kilcolman was sacked and burnt, one 
of his children perished in the flames, and Spenser 
and his family fled for their lives to England. Broken- 
hearted, poor, but not forgotten, the poet died in a 
London tavern. All his fellows went with his body 
to the grave, where, close by Chaucer, he lies in West- 
minster Abbey. London, *'his most kindly nurse/' 



IV.] LITERATURE OF ELIZABETH'S REIGN, 85 

takes care also of his dust, and England keeps him 
in her love. 

64. Later Elizabethan Poetry: Transla- 
tions. — There are three translators that take literary 
rank among the crowd that carried on the work 
of the earlier time. Two mark the influence of 
Italy, one the more powerful influence of the Greek 
spirit. Sir John Harington in 1591 translated 
^Ariosto's Orlando Ficrioso^ Fairfax in 1600 trans- 
lated Tasso's Jerusalem^ and his book is '' one of 
the glories of EUzabeth's reign." But the noblest 
translation is that of Homer s whole work by George 
Chapman, the dramatist, the first part of which ap- 
peared in 1598. The vivid life and energy of the 
time, its creative power and its force, are expressed in 
this poem, which is " more an Elizabethan tale written 
about Achilles and Ulysses " than a translation. The 
rushing gallop of the long fourteen-syhable stanza in 
which it is written has the fire and swiftness of Homer, 
but it has not his directness or dignity. Its '' incon- 
querable quaintness " and diffuseness are as unlike the 
pure form and Hght and measure of Greek work as pos- 
sible. Bat it is a distinct poem of such power that it 
will excite and delight all lovers of poetry, as it excited 
and delighted Keats. John Florio's Tra7islation of the 
Essays of Montaigne^ 1603, is also, though in prose, 
to be mentioned here, because Shakspere used the 
book, and because we must trace Montaigne's in- 
fluence on English literature even before his retrans- 
lation by Charles Cotton. 

The Four Phases of Poetry after 1580. — 
Spenser reflected in his poems the romantic spirit 
of the English Renaissance. The other poetry of 
Elizabeth's reign reflected the whole of EngHsh 
Life. The best way to arrange it — omitting as yet 
ihe Drama — is in an order parallel to the growth of 
the national life, and the proof that it is the best 
way is, that on the whole such an order is a true 



86 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [CHAP. 

chronolx)gical order. First then, if we compare 
England after 1580, as writers have often done, to an 
-ardent youth, we shall find in the poetry of the first 
years that followed that date all the elements of youth. 
It is a poetry of love, and romance, and imagination. 
Secondly, and later on, when Englishmen grew older 
in feeling, their enthusiasm, which had flitted here 
and there in action and literature over all kinds of 
subjects, settled down into a steady enthusiasm for. 
England itself. The country entered on its early man- 
hood, and parallel with this there is the groat out- 
burst of historical plays, and a set. of poets whom I 
will call the Patriotic Poets. Thirdly, and later still, 
the fire and strength of the people, becoming inward, 
resulted in a graver and more thoughtful national life, 
and parallel with this are the tragedies of Shakspere 
and the poets who have been called philosophical. 
These three classes of Poets overlapped one another, 
and grew up gradually, but on the whole thjir succes- 
sion is the image of a roal succession of national 
thouj^ht and emotion. 

k. fourth and separate phase does not represent, as 
these do, a new national life, a new religion, and new 
pohdcs, but the despairing struggle of the old faith 
against the new. Thtre were numbers of men, such 
as Wordsw^orth has finely sketched in old Norton in 
the Doe of Rylstone, who vainly and sorrowfully strove 
against all the new national elements. Robert South- 
well, of Norfolk, a Jesuit priest, was the poet of 
Roman Catholic England. Imprisoned for three 
years, racked ten times, and finally executed, he wrote, 
while confessor to Lady Arundel, a number of poems 
published at various intervals and finally collected . 
under the title, St. Peter's Complaint, Mary Magdalen's 
Tears, with other works of the Author, jR.S. The 
M ceo nice, and a short prose work Marie AlagdaletHs 
jFwierall Tears, became also very popular. It marks not 
only the large Roman Catholic element in the country, 



IV.] LITERATURE OF ELIZABETH'S REIGN, 87 

but also the strange contrasts of the time that eleven 
editions of books with these titles were published be- 
tween 1595 and 1609, at a time when the Ve7ius and 
Ado7iis of Shakspere led the way for a multitude of 
poems that sung of love and delight and England s 
glory. 

65. The Love Poetry. — I have called it by this 
name because all its best work (to be found in the 
first book of Mr. Palgrave's '^ Golden Treasury ") is 
almost limited to that subject — the subject of youth. 
It is chiefly composed in the form of songs and sonnets, 
and much of it was published in miscellanies in and 
after 1600. The most famous of these, in which 
men like Nicholas Breton, Henry Constable, Richard 
Baraefield and others wrote, are England's Helicon^ 
and Davison's Rhapsody and the Passionate Pilgrim. 
The best of the songs are *' old and plain, and 
dallying with the innocence of love," childlike in 
their natural sweetness and freshness, but full also 
of a southern ardour of passion when they treat of 
love. The greater part however have rhe intemperance 
as well as the phantasy of a youthful poetry. Shak- 
spere's excel the others in their firm reaHty, their ex- 
quisite ease, and when in the plays, gain a new beauty 
from their fitness to their dramatic place. Others 
possess a quaint pa-^toralism like shepherd Ufa in por- 
celain, such as Marlowe's well-known song, '* Come 
live with me, and be my love ; " others a splendour of 
love and beauty as in Lodge's So7ig of Rosaline^ and 
Spenser's on his marriage. The sonnets were written 
chiefly in series, and 1 have already said that such 
wTiters are called amourists. Such were Shakspere's 
and the Amoretti of Spenser, and those to Diana by 
Constable. They were sometimes mixed with Can- 
zones and Ballatas after the Italian manner, and the 
best of ihem were a series by Sir PhiHp Sidney. 
A number of other sonnets and of longer love poems 
were written by the dramatists before Shakspere, by 



88 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

Peele and Greene and Marlowe and Lodge, far the 
finest being the Hero and Leander^ which Marlowe 
left as a fi-agment to be completed by Chapman. 
Mingled up with these were small religious poems, the 
reflection of the Puritan and the more religious Church 
element in English society. They were collected 
under such titles as the handful of Ho 7ity suckles, the 
Foor Widow's Mite, Psalms and Sonnets, and there are 
some good things among them written by William 
Hunnis. 

In one Scotch poet, William Drummond of Haw- 
thornden, the friend of Ben Jonson, the love poet and 
the religious poet were united. I mention him here, 
though his work properly belongs to the reign of 
James L, because his poetry really goes back in spirit 
and feeling to this time. He cannot be counted 
among the true Scottish poets. Drummond is 
Elizabethan and English, and he is worthy to be 
named among the lyrical poets below Spenser and 
Shakspere. His love sonnets have some of the grace 
of Sidney's, and less quaintness ; his songs have often 
the grave simplicity of Wyat, and his religious poems, 
especially one solemn sonnet on John the Baptist, 
have a distant resemblance to the grandeur of Milton. 

(y(i. The Patriotic Poets. — Among ail this poetry 
of Romance, Chivalry, Religion, and Love, rose a 
poetry which devoted itself to the glory of England. 
It was chiefly historical, and as it may be said to have 
had its germ in the Mirror of Magistrates, so it had 
its perfect flower in the historical drama of Shak- 
spere. Men had now begun to have a great pride 
in England. She had stepped into the foremost rank, 
had outwitted France, subdued internal foes, beaten 
and humbled Spain on every sea. Hence the history 
of the land became precious, and the very rivers and 
hills and plains honourable, and to be sung and praised 
in verse. This poetic impulse is best represented in 
the works of three men — William Warner, Samuel 



IV.] LITERATURE OF ELIZABETH'S REIGN. 89 

Daniel, and Michael Drayton. Born within a few 
years of each other, about 1560, they all Hved beyond 
the century, and the national poetry they set on foot 
lasted when the romantic poetry died. 

William Warner's great book was Albioiis Eiigland^ 
1586, a history of Lngiand in verse from the Deluge 
to Queen Elizabeth. It is clever, humorous, crowded 
with stories, and runs to 10,000 lines. Its popularity 
was great, and the English in which it was written 
deserved it. Such stories as Argentile and Curan, and 
the Patient Countess^ prove hiili to have had a true 
and pathetic vein of poetry. His English is not how- 
ever better than thatof **well-languaged DanieV who, 
among tragedies and pastoral comedies, some noble 
sonnets and pojms of pure fancy, wrote in verse a pro 
saic History of the Civil Wars, 1595. Spenser saw in 
him a new '^ shepherd " of poetry who did far surpass 
the others, and Coleridge says that the style of his . 
Hymen's Tritnnph may be declared ** imperishable 
Enghsh." Of the three the greatest poet was Drayton. 
Two historical poems are his work — the Civil V/ars 
of Edward IL and the Barons, and England' s Heroical 
Epistles, 1598. Not content with these, he set him- 
self to glorify the whole of his land in the Polyolbion, 
thirty books, and nearly 100,000 lines. It is a de- 
scription in Alexandrines of the " tracts, mountains, 
forests, and other parts of this renowned isle of 
Britain, with intermixture of the most remarkable 
stories, antiquities, wonders, pleasures, and commo- 
dities of the same, digested into a poem." It was 
not a success, though it deserved success. Its great 
length was against it, but the real reason was that this 
kind of poetry had had its day. It appeared in 16 13, 
in James I.'s reign. 

67. Philosophical Poets. — Before that time a 
change had come. As the patriotic poets came 
after the romantic, so the romantic were followed 
by the philosophical poets. The land was settled ; 



go : ; ' ENGLISH LITERATURE, lchap. 

enterprise ceased to be the first thing ; men sat down 
-to think, and in poetry questions of reh'gious and 
political philosophy were treated with "sententious 
reasoning, grave, subtle, and condensed." Shakspere, 
in his passage from comedy to tragedy, in 1601, illus- 
trates this change. The two poets who represent it 
are Sir Jno. Davies and Fulke Greville, Lord 
Brooke. In Davies himself we find an instance of it. 
His earlier poem of the Orchestra^ 1596, in which the 
whole world is explained as a dance, is as exultant 
as Spenser. His later poem, 1599, is compact and 
vigorous reasoning, for the most part without fancy. 
Its very title, Nosce te tpsum ~'Y^r\o\Y Thyself— and its 
divisions, i. '^ On humane learning,*' 2. *' The im- 
mortality of the soul " — mark the alteration. Two 
little poems, one of Bacon's, on the Life of Man, as a 
bubble, and one of Sir Henry Wotton's, on the 
. Character of a Happy Life, are instances of the same 
change. It is still more marked in Tord Brooke's 
long, obscure poems On ILuman Learning, on Wars, 
on Monarchy, and on RcUoion^ The\ are political and 
historical treatises, not poems, and all in them, says 
Lamb, •' is made frozen and rigid by intellect." Apart 
from poetry, ''they are worth notice as an indication 
of that thinking spirit on political science which was 
to produce the riper speculations of HoLbes, Har- 
rington, and Locke." We turn now to the Drama, 
whicn includes all these different forms of poetry. 



THE DRAMA. 

6%, Early Dramatic Representation in Eng 
land. — The drama, as in Greece, so in England, began 
in religion. In early times none but the clergy could 
read the stories of their religion, and it was not the 
custom to deliver sermons to the people. It was neces- 
sary to instruct uneducated men in the history of the 



IVJ THE ENGLISH DJ^AM A, 91 

Bible, the Christian faith, the lives of the Saints and 
Martyrs. Hence the Church set on foot miracle plays 
and mysteries. We find these first in England about 
1 110, when Geoffrey, afterwards Abbot of St. Alban's, 
prepared his miracle play of St. Catherine for acting. 
Such plays became more frequent from the time of 
Henry II., and they were so common in Chaucer's 
days that they were the resort of idle gossips in Lent. 
The wife of Bath went to "plays of miracles, and 
marriages." They were acted not only by the clergy, 
but by the laity. About the year 1268 the town guilds 
began to take them into their own hands, and acted 
complete sets of plays, setting forth the whole of 
Scripture history from the Creation to the Day of 
Judgment. Each guild took one play in the set. 
They lasted sometimes three days, sometimes eight, 
and were represented on a great movable stage on 
wheels in the open spaces of the towns. Of these 
sets we have three remaining, theTowneley, Coventry, 
and Chester plays: 1300 — 1600. The first set has 
32, the second 42, and the third 25 plays. 

69. The Miracle Play was a representation of 
some portion of Scripture history, or of the life of 
some Saint of the Church. The Mystery was a 
representation of any portion of the New Testament 
history concerned with a mysterious subject, such as 
the Incarnation, the Atonement or the Resurrection. 
It has been attempted to distinguish these more par- 
ticularly, but they are mingled together in England 
into one. From the towns they went to the court 
and the houses of nobles. The Kings kept players 
of them, and we know that exhibiting Scripture plays 
at great festivals was part of the domestic regulations 
of the great houses, and that it was the Chaplain's 
business to write them. Their *^ Dumb Show " and 
their " Chorus '' leave their trace in the regular drama. 
We cannot say that the modern drama arose after 
them, lor it came in before they died out in England, 



92 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chak 

They were still acted in Chester in 1577, and in 
Coventry in 1580. 

70. The Morality was the next step to these, and 
in it we come to a representation which is closely 
connected with the drama. It was a play in which 
the characters were the Vices and Virtues, with the 
, addition afterwards of allegorical personages, such as 
'Riches, Good Deeds, Confession, Death, and any 
human condition or quality needed for the play. 
These characters were brouglit together in a rough 
story, at the end of which Virtue triumphed, or some 
moral principle was established. The later dramatic/i?^/ 
grew up in the Moralities out of a personage called 
" The Vice," and the humorous element was intro- 
duced by the retaining of " The Devil " from the 
Miracle play and by making the Vice torment him, 
They were contiunally represented, but finally died out 
about the end of Elizabeth's reign. 

71. The Transition between these and the 
regular Drama may possibly be traced in this way. 
The Virtues and Vices were dull because they stirred 
no human sympathy. Historical characters were 
therefore then introduced, who were celebrated for a 
virtue or a vice; Brutus represented patriotism, 
Aristides represented justice ; or, as in Bale's Kynge 
/ohan, historical and allegorical personages were mixed 
together. But it seems best to say that the regulai 
drama arose independently, as soon as the English 
had classical and Italian models to work from. Still, 
there was a transition of some kind, and it was hastened 
by the impulse of the Reformation. The religious 
struggle came so home to men's hearts that they were 
not satisfied with subjects drawn from the past, and 
the Morality was used to support the Catholic or the 
Protestant side. Real men and women were shown 
under the thin cloaks of its allegorical characters ; the 
vices and the follies of the time w^ere displayed. It 
started our satiric comedy. The stage was becoming 



IV.] THE ENGLISH DRAMA. 93 

a living power when this began. The excitement of the 
audience was now very different from that felt in listen- 
ing to Virtues and Vices, and a demand arose for a 
comedy and tragedy which should picture human life 
in all its forms. The Interludes of John Heywood, 
most of which were written for court representation 
in Henry VIII. 's time— 1530, 1540— represent this 
further transition. They differed from the Morality 
in that most of the characters were drawn from real 
life, but they retained "the Vice" as a personage. 
The Interlude — a short, humorous piece, to be acted 
in the midst of the Morality for the amusement of 
the people— had been frequently used, but Heywood 
isolated it from the Morality and made of it a kind of 
farce. Out of it we may say grew English comedy. 

72. The First Stage of the regular Drama 
begins with the first English comedy, Ralph Roister 
Bolster^ written by Nicholas Udall, master of Eton, 
known to have been acted before 1551, but not pub- 
lished till 1566. It is our earhest picture of London 
manners ; the characters are well drawn ; it is divided 
into regular acts and scenes, and is made in rime. 
The first English tragedy is Gorbodtic^ or Ferrex and 
Porrex, written by Sackville and Norton, and repre- 
sented in 1562. The story was taken from British 
legend, and the characters are gravely sustained. But 
the piece was heavy and too solemn for the audience, 
and Richard Edwards, by mixing tragic and comic 
elements together in his play, Damon and Pythias^ 
acted about 1564, succeeded better. These two gave 
the impulse to a number of dramas from classical and 
modern story, which were acted at the Universities, 
Inns of Court, and the court up to 1580, when the 
drama, having gone through its boyhood, entered on 
a vigorous manhood. More than fifty-two dramas, so 
quick was their production, are known to have been 
acted up to this time. Some were translated from the 
Greek, as ih^/ocasta from Euripides, and others from 



94 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap; 

the Italian, as the Supposes from Ariosto, both by the 
same author, George Gascoigne, already mentioned 
as a satirist. These were acted in 1566. Italian 
stories were soon taken as subjects, one example of 
which is Arthur Brooke's Romeo a?id Juliet, The 
Chronicle Histories of England afforded other tragic 
subjects, as T. Hughes' Misfortunes of Arthur^ and the 
Famous Victories of Henry K ; and Comedy, falling 
in with classical and Italian plays, such as the 
Supposes, rapidly developed itself. 

73. The Theatre. — There was as yet no theatre. 
A patent was given in 1574 to the Earl of Leicester's 
servants to act plays in any town in England, and 
they built in 1576 the Blackfriars Theatre. In the 
same year two others were set up in the fields about 
Shoreditch— "The Theatre^' and ''The Curtain.'' 
The Globe Theatre, built for Shakspere and his 
fellows in 1599, m.ay stand as a type of the rest. 
In the form of a hexagon outside, it was circular 
within, and open to the weather, except above the 
stage. The play began at three o'clock ; the nobles 
and ladies sat in boxes or in stools on the stage, the 
people stood in the pit or yard. The stage itself, 
strewn with rushes, was a naked room, with a blanket 
for a curtain. Wooden imitations of animals, towers, 
woods, &c., were all the scenery used, and a board, 
stating the place of action, was hung out from the top 
when the scene changed. Boys acted the female 
parts. It was only after the Restoration that moveable 
scenery and actresses were introduced. No " pencil's 
aid " supplied the landscape of Shakspere's plays. The 
forest of Arden, the castle of Duncan, were " seen 
bnly by the intellectual eye." 

74. The Second Stage of the Drama ranges 
from 1580 to 1596. It includes the work of Lyly 
(author of the Euphues)^ the piays of Peele, Greene, 
Lodge, Marlowe, Kyd, Munday, Chettle, Nash, and 
th§ earliest works of Shakspere. During this time 



[V.] THE ENGLISH DRAMA. 95 

we know that more than 100 different plays were per- 
formed by foar out of the eleven companies ; so swift 
and plentiiul was their production. They were written 
in prose, and in rime, and in blank verse mixed with 
prose and rime. Prose and rime prevailed before 
1587, when Marlowe in his play of Tai?iburlai?ie made 
blank verse the fashion. John Lyly illustrates the 
three methods, for he wrote seven plays in prose, one 
in rime, and one (after Tamburlaine) in blank vcr^e. 
We may say that, in '* adopting Gascoigne's innovation 
of writing plays in prose, he did ■ his best service to 
dramatic literature.'^ Some beautiful little songs scat- 
tered through them are the forerunners of the songs 
with which Shakspere illumined his dramas, and the 
witty *^ quips and cranks," repartees and similes of 
their fantastic prose dialogue were the school of 
Shakspere's prose dialogue. Peele, Greene, and 
Marlowe are the three important names of the 
period. They are the first in whose hands the play 
of human passion and action is expressed with any 
true dramatic effect. Peele and Greene make their 
characters act on, and draw out, one another in the 
several scenes, but they have no power of making a 
plot, or of working out their plays, scene by scene, to 
a natural conclusion. They are, in one word, without 
art, and their characters, even when they talk in good 
poetry, are neither natural nor simple. Yet, he would 
be unwise, and would lose much pleasure, who should 
not read their works. 

Christopher Marlowe, on the other hand, rose 
by degrees and easily into mastery of his art. The 
difference between the unequal and violent action 
and thought of his Doctor Faustus^ and the qu'et 
and orderly progression to its end of the play ol 
Edward J I,, is all the more remarkable when we 
know that he died at thirty. Though less than 
Shakspere, he was worthy to precede him. As he 
mav be said to have invented and made the verse of 



96 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

the drama, so he created the EngUsh tragic drama. 
His plays are wrought with skill to their end, his 
characters are sharply and strongly outlined. Each 
play illustrates one ruling passion, in its growth, its 
power, and its extremes. Tamburiaine paints the 
desire of universal empire ; the Jew of Malta, the 
passions ^of greed and hatred ; Doctor Faustiis, the 
struggle^ and failure of man to possess all knowledge 
and all pleasure without toil and without law; 
Edward J I., the misery of weakness and the agony 
of a king's ruin. Marlowe's verse is' ''mighty," his 
poetry strong and weak alike with passionate feeling, 
and overwrought into an intemperate magnificence of 
words and images. It reflects his life and the lives of 
those with whom he wrote. Marlowe lived and died an 
irreligious, imaginative, tender-hearted, licentious poet. 
Peele and Greene lived an even more riotous life and 
died as miserably, and they are examples of a crowd 
of other dramatists who passed their lives between the 
theatre, the wine-shop, and the prison. Their drama, 
in which we see the better side of the men, had all the 
marks of a wild youth. It was daring, full of strong 
but unequal life, romantic, sometimes savage, often 
tender, always exaggerated in its treatment and ex- 
pression of the human passions. If it had no modera- 
tion, it had no tame dulness. If it was coarse, it was 
powerful, and it was above all national. It was a 
time full of strange contrasts, a time of fiery action 
and of sentimental contemplation; a time of fancy 
(and chivalry, indelicacy and buffoonery; of great 
j national adventure and private brawls, of literary 
quiet and polemic thought ; of faith and infidelity — 
and the whole of it is painted with truth, but with too 
glaring colours, in the drama of these men. 

75. William Shakspere, the greatest dramatist 
of the world, now took up the work of Marlowe, and 
in twenty-eight years made the drama represent the 
whole of human life. He was baptised April 26, 1564, 



IV.] THE EIVGLISH DRAMA, 97 

and was the son of a comfortable burgess of Stratford- 
on-Avon. While he was still young his father fell 
into poverty, and an interrupted education left him 
an inferior scholar. *' He had small Latin and less 
Greek ;" but he had vast store of English.^ 

By dint then of genius and by living in a society in 
which every kind of information was attainable, he 
became an accomplished man. The story told of his 
deer-stealing in Charlecote woods is without proof, but 
it is likely that his youth was wild and passionate. At 
nineteen he married Anne Hathaway, more than seven 
years older than himself, and was probably unhappy 
with her. For this reason, or from poverty, or from the 
driving of the genius that led him to the stage, he left 
Stratford about 1586-7, and came to London at the 
age of tweniy-two years, and falling in with Marlowe, 
Greene, and the rest, became an actor and play- 
wright, and may have lived their unrestrained and 
riotous life for some years. 

76. His First Period. — It is probable that before 
leaving Stratford he had sketched a part at least of 
his Venus and Adonis. It is full of the country sights 
and sounds, of the ways of birds and animals, such 
as he saw when wandering in Charlecote woods. Its 
rich and overladen poetry and its warm colouring 
made him, when it was published, 1591-3, at once 
the favourite of men like Lord Southampton and 
lifted him into fame. But before that date he had 
done work for the stage by touching up old plays, and 
writing new ones. We seem to trace his *' prentice 
hand ^' in many dramas of the time, but the first he is 
usually thought to have retouched is Titus Andronicus^ 
and some time after the First Part of Henry VI. 
Love's Labour's Lost, the first of his original plays, in 

•• He n^es 15,000 words, and he wrote pure Enoflish. Out of 
every five verbs, adverb?, and nouns [e.g, in the Jast act of 
Oihelh) four are Teutonic; and he is more Teutonic in comedy 
than in tragedy. 



98 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

which he quizzed and excelled the Euphuists in wit, was 
followed by the involved and rapid farce of the Comedy 
of Errors, Out of these froHcs of intellect and action 
he passed into pure poetry in the Midsuimner-Nighfs 
Dream, and mingled into fantastic beauty the classic 
legend, the mediaeval fairyland, and the clownish life 
of the English mechanic. Italian story then laid its 
charm upon him, and the Two Gentlemen of Verona 
preceded the southern glow of passion in Ro7neo and 
Juliet, in which he first reached tragic power. They 
complete, with Love' s Labour's Wo7i, afterwards recast 
as Airs Well that Ends Well, the love plays of his 
early period. We may perhaps add to them the 
second act of an older play, Edward III. We should 
certainly read along with them, as belonging to the 
same period, his Rape of Lucrece, a poem finally printed 
in 1594, one year later than the Venus and Adonis, 
which was probably finished, if not wholly written, at 
this passionate time. 

The same poetic succession we have traced in the 
poets is now found in Shakspere. The patriotic feel- 
ing of England, also represented in Marlowe and 
Peele, now seized on him, and he turned from love 
to begin his great series of historical plays with 
Richard I L, 1593 — 4. Richard III. followed quickly. 
To introduce it and to complete the subject, he re- 
cast the Second and Third Parts of He?iry VL (written 
by some unknown authors) and ended his first period 
by King John ; five plays in a little more than two 
years. 

77. His Second Period, 1596 — 1601. — In the 
Merchant of Venice Shakspere reached entire mastery 
over his art. A mingled woof of tragic and comic 
threads is brought to its highest point of colour when 
Portia and Shylock meet in court. Pure comedy fol- 
lowed in his retouch of the old Taming of the Shrew, 
and all the wit of the world mixed with noble history 
met next in the three comedies of Falstaff, the first 



IV.] THE ENGLISH DRAMA. 99 

and second Henry IV, and the Merry Wives of Wmd-r 
sor. The historical plays were then closed with 
Henry F, ; a splendid dramatic song to the glory of 
England. The Globe Theatre, in which he was one of 
the proprietors, was built in 1599. In the comedies 
he wrote for it, Shakspere turned to write of love 
again, not to touch its deeper passion as before, but 
to play with it in all its lighter phases. The flashing 
dialogue of Much Ado About Nothing was followed 
by the far-off forest world of As You Like It,, where 
**the time fleets carelessly," and Rosalind's character 
is the play. Amid all its gracious lightness steals in 
a new element, and the melancholy of Jaques is the 
first touch we have of the older Shakspere who had 
** gained his experience, and whose experience had 
made him sad." As yet it was but a touch \ Twelfth 
Night shows no trace of it, though the play that fol- 
lowed, Airs Well that Ends Well, again strikes a 
sadder note. We find this sadness fully grown in the 
later Sonjtrts, which are said to have been finished 
about 1602, We know that some ot the Sonnets ex- 
isted in 1598, but they were all printed together for 
the first time in 1609, 

Shakspere's life changed now, and his mind 
changed with it. He had grown wealthy during this 
period, famous, and loved by society. He was the 
friend of the Earls of Southampton and Essex, and of 
William Herbert, Lord Pembroke. The Queen pa- 
tronised him ] all the best literary society was his own. 
He had rescued his father from poverty, bought the 
best house in Stratford and much land, and was a 
man of wealth and comfort. Suddenly all his life 
seems to have grown dark. His best friends fell into 
ruin, Essex perished on the scaffold, Southampton 
went to the Tower, Pembroke was banished from the 
court ; he may himself, as some have thought, have 
been concerned in the rising of Essex. Added to this, 
we may conjecture, from the imaginative pageantry 



loo ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

of the sonnets, that he had unwisely loved, and been 
betrayed in his love by a dear friend. Disgust of his 
profession as an actor and public and private ill 
weighed heavily on him, and in darkness of spirit, 
though still clinging to the business of the theatre, he 
passed from comedy to write of the sterner side of the 
world, to tell the tragedy of mankind. 

78. — His Third Period, 1601-1608, begins with 
the last days of Queen Elizabeth., It opens, 1601, with 
Julius Ccesar, and we may have, scattered through the 
telling of the great Roman's fate, the expression of 
Shakspere's sorrow for the ruin of Essex. Hamlet fol- 
lowed, for the poet felt, like the Prince of Denmark, 
that *' the time was out of joint.'' Ha7iilet, the dreamer, 
may well represent Shakspere as he stood aside from 
the crash that overwhelmed his friends, and thought 
on the changing world. The tragi-comedy of Measure 
for AJeasure was next written, and is tragic in thought 
throughout. Othello, Macbeth, Lear, Tioilus a72d 
Cressida (finished from an incomplete work of his 
youth), Antony and Cleopatra, Loriolanus, Timon 
(only in part his own), were all written in these five 
years. The darker sins of men, the unpitying fate 
which slowly gathers round and falls on men, the 
avenging wrath of conscience, the cruelty and punish- 
ment of weakness, the treachery, lust, jealousy, in- 
gratitude, madness of men, the follies of the great 
and the fickleness of the mob, are all, with a thousand 
other varying moods and passions, painted, and felt 
as his own while he painted them, during this stern 
time. 

79. His Fourth Period, 1608-1613.— As Shak- 
spere wrote of these things he passed out of them, 
and his last days are full of the gentle and loving 
calm of one who has known sin and sorrow and fate, 
but has risen above them into peaceful victory. Like 
his great contemporary Bacon, he left the world and 
his own evil time behind him, and with the same 



IV.] THE ENGLISH DRAMA. loi 

quiet dignity sought the innocence and stillness of 
country life. The country breathes through all the 
dramas of this time. The flowers Perdita gathers in 
Winters Tale, the froHc of the sheep -shearing, he 
may have seen in the Stratford meadows ; the song of 
Fidele in Cymbeline is written by one who already 
feared no more the frown of the great, nor slander, 
nor censure rash, and was looking forward to the time 
when men should say of him — 

" Quiet consummation have ; 
And renowned be thy grave ! " 

Shakspere probably left London in 1609, and lived 
in the house he had bought at Stratford-on-Avon. 
He was reconciled, it is said, to his wife, and the plays 
now written dwell on domestic peace and forgiveness. 
The story of Marina, which he left unfinished, and 
which two later writers expanded into the play of 
Pericles, is the first of his closing series of dramas. 
The Tempest, Cymbeline, Winter's Tale, bring his 
history up to 16 12, and in the next year he closed bis 
poetic life by writing, with Fletcher, Henry VII L 
The T7£J0 Noble Kinsmen of Fletcher, a great part of 
which is now, on doubtful grounds I think, attributed 
to Shakspere, and in which the poet sought the 
inspiration of Chaucer, would belong to this period. 
For three years he kept silence, and then, on the 
23rd of April, 1616, it is supposed on his fifty-second 
birthday, he died. 

80. His Work. — We can only guess with regard 
to Shakspere's life ; we can only guess with regard to 
his character. It has been tried to find out what he 
was from his sonnets, and from his plays, but every 
attempt seems to be a failure. We cannot lay our 
hand on anything and say for certain that it was 
spoken by Shakspere out of his own character. The 
most personal thing in all his writings is one that 
has been scarcely noticed. It is the Epilogue to the 



102 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

Tewpest., and if it be, as is most probable, one of the 
last thmgs he ever wrote, then its cry for forgiveness, its 
tale of inward sorrow only to be reheved by prayer, 
give us some dim insight into how the silence of 
those three years was passed j while its declaration of 
his aim in writing, *' which was to please " — the true 
definition of the artist's aim, if the pleasure he desire 
to give be noble — should make us very cautious 
in our efiorts to define his character from his works. 
Shakspere made men and w^omen whose dramatic 
action on each other, and towards a catastrophe, was 
intended to please the public, not to reveal himself. 
Frequaitly failing in fineness of workmanship, having, 
but fLir less than the other dramatists, the faults of 
the art ot his time, he was yet in all other points — in 
creative power, in impassioned conception and exe- 
cution, in plenteousness, in the continuance of his 
romantic feeling — the greatest artist the modern \Yorld 
has known. No commentary on his writings, no 
guesses about his life or character, are worth much 
which do not rest on this canon as their foundation 
— What he did, thought, learned, and felt, he did, 
thought, learned, and felt as an artist. Like the 
rest of the great artists, he reflected the noble 
thirgs of his time, but refused to reflect the base. 
Ftdly influenced, as we see in Hamlet he w^as, by 
the graver and more philosophic cast of thought 
of the latter time of Elizabeth; passing on into 
the reign of James I., when pedantry took the 
place of gaiety, and sensual the place of imagi- 
native love in the drama, and artificial art the 
place of that a^t which itself is nature ; he preserves 
to the last the natural passion, the simple tenderness, 
the sweetness, grace, and fire of the youthful Eliza- 
bethan poetry. The Winter s Tale is as lovely a love- 
story as Romeo and Juliet^ the Tempest is more instinct 
with imagination and as great in fancy as the Mid- 
siunmer- Night's Dream, and yet there are fully twenty 



IV.] THE ENGLISH DRAMA. 103 

years between them. The only change is in the in- 
crease of power and in a closer and graver grasp of 
human nature. In the unchangeableness of this joyful 
and creative art-power Shakspere is almost alone. 
Around hun the whole tone and manner of the drama 
altered for the worse as his life went on, but his work 
grew to the close in strength and beauty. 

81. The Decay of the Drama begins while 
Shakspere is alive. At first one can scarcely call it 
decay, it was so magnificent. For it began with *' rare 
Ben JonsOxNT." His first play, in its very \A\\<t^ Every 
Man in his Humour^ 1596-98, enables us to say in 
what the first step of this decay consisted. The drama 
in Shakspere's hands had been the painting of the 
whole of human nature, the painting of characters as 
they were built up by their natural bent, and by the 
play of circumstance upon them. The drama, in Ben 
Joubon's hands, was the painting of that particular 
human nature which he saw in his own age ; and his 
Siaracters are not men and women as they are, but as 
they may becoine when they are mastered by a special 
'bias of the mind or Humour, **The Manners, now 
called Humours, feed the Stage,'* says Jonson himself 
Every Man in his Humour was followed by Every 
Man out of his Humour, and by Cynthia's Revels^ 
written to satirise the courtiers. The fierce satire of 
these plays brought the town down upon him, and 
he replied to their *^ noise" in the Poetaster^ in which 
Dekker and Marston were sadrised. Dekker answered 
with the Satii'o-Mastix^ a bitter parody on the Poet- 
aster, in which he did not spare Jonson's bodily de- 
fects. The staring Leviathan, as he calls Jonson, is 
not a very untrue description. Silent then for two 
years, he reappeared with the tragedy of Sejanus, and 
then quickly produced three splendid comedies in 
James I.'s reign, Volpone the Eox, the Silent Woman, 
and the Alchemist, 1 605-9-10. The first is the finest 
thing he ever did, as great in power as it is in the 



I04 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

interest and skill of its plot ; the second is chiefly 
valuable as a picture of English life in high society ; 
the third is full to weariness of Jonson's obscure learn- 
ing, but its character of Sir Epicure Mammon redeems 
it. In 1611 his Catili?ie appeared, and eight years 
after he was made Poet Laureate. Soon he became 
poor and palsy-stricken, but his genius did not decay. 
The most graceful and tender thing he ever wrote 
was written in his old age. His pastoral drama the 
Sad Shepherd proves that, like Shakspere, Jonson 
grew kinder and gentler as he grew near to death, and 
death took him in 1637. He was a great man. The 
power and copiousness of the young Elizabethan age 
belonged to him; and he stands far below, but still 
worthily by, Shakspere, *'a robust, surly, and observing 
dramatist." 

82. Masques. — Rugged as Jonson was, he could 
turn to light and graceful work, and it is with his name 
that we connect the Masques, Masques were dramatic 
representations made for a festive occasion, with a re- 
ference to the persons present and the occasion. Their 
personages were allegorical. They admitted of dia- 
logue, music, singing and dancing, combined by the 
use of some ingenious fable into a whole. They were 
made and performed for the court and the houses of 
the nobles, and the scenery was as gorgeous and 
varied as the scenery of the playhouse proper was 
poor and unchanging. Arriving for the first time at 
any repute in Henry VHI.'s time, they reached splen- 
dour under James and Charles I. Great men took 
part in them. When Ben Jonson wrote them, Inigo 
Jones made the scenery and Lawes the music; and 
Lord Bacon, Whitelock, and Selden sat in committee 
for the last great masque presented to Charles. Milton 
himself made them worthier by writing Comiis, and 
their scenic decoration was soon introduced into 
the regular theatres. 

83, Beaumont and Fletcher worked together, 



IV.] THE ENGLISH DRAMA. 105 

but out of more than fifty plays, all written in James 
L's reign, not more than fourteen were shared m by 
Beaumont, who died at the age of thirty in 16 16, 
Fletcher survived him, and died in 1625. Both were 
of gentle birth. Beaumont, where we can trace his 
work, is weighter and more dignified than his comrade, 
but Fletcher was the better poet. Their Fhilaster 
and Thierry and Theodoret are fine exam.ples of 
their tragic power. Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess 
is full of lovely poetry, and both are masters of grace 
and pathos and style. They enfeebled the blank verse 
of the drama while they rendered it sweeter by using 
feminine endings and adding an eleventh syllable with 
great frequency. This gave freedom and elasticity to 
their verse, and was suited to the dialogue of comedy^ 
but it lowered the dignity of their tragedy. The two 
men mark a change in politics and society from 
Shakspere's time. Shakspere's loyalty is constitu- 
tional; Beaumont and Fletcher are blind supporters 
of James I.'s invention of the divine right of kings. 
Shakspere's society w^as on the whole decent, and 
it is so in his plays. Beaumont and Fletcher are 
** studiously indecent." In contrast to them Shak- 
spere is as white as snow. Shakspere's men are of 
the type of Sidney and Raleigh, Burleigh and Drake. 
The men of these two writers represent the "young 
bloods" of the Stuart court; and even the best of 
their older and graver men are base and foul in thought. 
Their women are either monsters of badness or of 
goodness. When they paint a good woman (two or 
three at most being excepted), she is beyond nature. 
The fact is that the high art which in Shakspere 
sought to give a noble pleasure by being true to 
human nature in its natural aspects, sank now into 
the baser art which wished to excite, at any cost, the 
passions of the audience by representing human 
nature m unnatural aspects. 

84. In Massinger and Ford this evil is just as 



io6 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

plainly marked. Massinger's first dated play was the 
Virgin Martyr, 1620* He lived poor, and died '^ a 
stranger," in 1639. In tluse twenty years he wrote 
thirty-seven plays, of which the New Way to Fay 
Old Debts is the best known by its character of 
Sir Giles Overreach. No writer is fouler in language, 
and there is a want 1 unity .^f impression both in his 
plots and in his characters. He often sacrifices art 
to efi'ect, and, ** unlike Shakspere, seems to despise 
his own characters." On the other hand, his versi- 
fication and language are flexible and strong, **and 
seem to rise out of the passions he describes.'* 
He speaks the tongue of real ufe. His men and 
women are far more natural t^-an those 01 Beaumont 
and Fletcher, ana, with all his coarseness, he is the 
most moral of the secon lary aramatists. Nowhere is 
his work so great as when he represents the brave man 
struggling through trial to victory, tne pure woman 
suffering for the sake of truth and love ; or when he 
describes the terrors that conscience brings on in- 
justice and cruelty. John Ford, his contemporary, 
published his first play, the Lover's Melancholy, in 
1629, and fi^e years after, Perkin Warbeck, the best 
historical drama after Shakspere. Between these 
dates appeared others, or which the best is the Broken 
Heart. He carried to an extreme the tendency of 
the drarai to unnatural and horrible subjects, but he 
did so. with very great power. He has no comic 
humour, but no man has described better the worn 
and tortured human heart. 

85. Webster and other Dramatists. — Higher 
as a poet, and possessing the same power as Ford, 
though not the same exquisite tenderness, was John 
Webster, whose best drama, The Duchess of Malfi, 
was acted in 16 16. Vittoria Cb;w;2^^;^<3; w^as printed in 
161 2, and was followed by the Devits Law Case, 
Appius and Virginia, and others. Webster's peculiar 
power of creating ghastly horror is redeemed 



IV.] THE ENGLISH DRAMA. 107 

from sensationalism by his poetic insight. His 
imagination easily saw, and expressed in short and 
intense hnes, the inmost thoughts and feeUngs of 
characters whom he represents as wrought on by 
misery, or crime, or remorse, at their very highest 
point of passion. In his worst characters there is some 
redeeming touch, and this poetic pity brings him nearer 
to Shakspere than the rest. He is also neither so 
coarse, nor so great a king worshipper, nor so irreli- 
gious as the others. We seem to taste the Puritan in 
his work. Two comedies, Weshvard Ho ! and North- 
ward Ho ! remarkable for the light they throw on the 
■ manners of the time, were writcn by him along with 
Thomas Dekker. George Chapman is the only one 
of the later EHzabethan dramatists who kept the old 
fire of Marlowe, though he never had the naturalness 
or temperance which lifted Shakspere far beyond 
Marlowe. Tlie same force which we have seen in 
his translation of Homer is to be found in his plays. 
The mingling of intellectual power with imagination, 
violence of words and images with tender and natural 
and often splendid passages, is entirely in the earlier 
Elizabethan manner. Like Marlowe, nay, even more 
than Marlowe, he is always impassioned, and '* hurled 
instinctive fire about the world.^^ These were the 
greatest names among a crowd of dramatists. AVe 
can only mention John Marston, Henry Glapthorne, 
Richard Brome, William Rowlcv, Thomas Middleton, 
Cyril Tourneur, and Thomas Heywood. Of these, 
**all of whom," says Lamb, ^* spoke nearly the 
same language, and had a set of moral findings and 
notions in common," James Shirley is the last. 
He lived till 1666. In him the fire and passion 
of the old time passes away, but some of the 
delicate poetry remains, and in him the Elizabethan 
drama dies. In 1642 the theatres were closed during 
the calamitous times of the Civil War. StrolHng 
players managed to exist with difticnhv, and against 

10 



io8 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [c hap. 

the law, till 1656, when Sir William Davenant had 
his opera of the Siege of Rhodes acted in London. 
It was the beginning of a new drama, in every point 
but impurity different from the old, and four years 
after, at the Restoration, it broke loose from the prison 
of Puritanism to indulge in a shameless license. 

In this rapid sketch of the Drama in England we 
lave been carried on beyond the death of Elizabeth 
to the date of the Restoration. It was necessary, 
because it keeps the whole story together. We now 
return to the time that followed the accession of 
James I. 



CHAPTER V. 

FROM ELIZABETH'S DEATH TO THE RESTORATION. 

1603-1660. 

Lord Bacon, Advancement of Learning (two books), 1605 ; 
expanded into nine Latin books, 1623 ; Novum Organon 
(first sketch), 1607 ; finished, 1620 : Historia Naturalis et 
Ex^erimentalis, 1622- These three form the Instauratio 
Magna; last edition oi Essays, 1625; dies, 1626- — Giles 
Fletcher's Teinptation of Christy 1610- — W. Browne's 
Britannia s Pastorals, 1613, 16.— J- Donne's Poeins and 
Satires, 1613-1635.— G. Wither, Poems, 1613-1622-1641. 
— Ge3ri^-e Herbert, Temple, 1631. — Jere ny Ta\'Ior, Liberty 
of Prophesying, 1647. — 1'^. Herrick, Hesperides, 1648 — : 
Hobbes' Leviathan, 1651-— T. Fuller's Church History, 
1656.— J. Mihon, born 1608 ; First Poem, 1626 ; H Allegro, 
1632 ; Comus and Lycidas, 1634-1637 ; Prose writings and 
most of the Sonnets, 1640-1660; Paradise Lost, 1667; 
Paradise Regaifted and Samson A^onistes, 1671 * dies 1674. 
Banyan's Pilgri?n's Progress, 1678-1684. 

2>6. The Literature of this Period may fairly 
be called Elizabethan, but not so altogether. The 
Prose retained the manner of the Elizabethan time and 



v.] ELIZABETH TO THE RESTORATION. 109 

the faults of its style, but gradually grew into greater 
excellence, spread itself over larger fields of thought 
and took up a greater variety of subjects. The Poetry, 
on the contrary, decayed. It exaggerated the vices 
of the Elizabethan art, and lost its virtues. But this 
is not the whole account of the matter. We must add 
that a new Prose, of greater force of thought and of a 
simpler style than the Elizabethan, arose in the writings 
of a theologian like Chillingworth and a philosopher 
like Hobbes : and that a new type of poetry, distinct 
from that ^' metaphysical '^ poetry of fantastic wit into 
which Elizabethan poetry had degenerated, was written 
by some of the lyrical writers of the court. It was 
Elizabethan in its lyric note, but it was not obscure. 
It had grace, simplicity, and smoothness. In its greater 
art and clearness it tells us that the critical school is 
at hand. 

87. Prose Literature. — Philosophy passed 
from EHzabeth into the reign of James I. with Francis 
Bacon. The splendour of the form and of the English 
prose of the Advance?nent of Learning, two books of 
which were published in 1605, raises it into the realm 
of pure literature. It was expanded into nine Latin 
books in 1623, and with the Novum Organum, finished 
in 1620, and the Historia Naturalis et Experimentalise 
1622, formed the Instauratio Magna, The impulse 
these books gave to research, and to the true method 
of research, though only partly right, awoke scientific 
inquiry in England ; and before the Royal Society was 
constituted in the reign of Charles II., our science, 
though far behind that of the Continent, had done 
some good work. William Harvey lectured on the 
Circulation of the Blood in 161 5, and during the Civil 
War and the Commonwealth men like Robert Boyle, 
the chemist, and John Wallis, the mathematician, and 
others met in William Betty's rooms at Brazenose, 
and prepared the way for Newton. 

88. History, except in the publicadon of the earlier 



no ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

Chronicles of Archbishop Parker, does not appear in 
the later part of EHzabeth's reign, but under James I. 
Camden, Spehnan, Selden, and Speed continued the 
antiquarian researches of Stow and Grafton. Bacon 
pubhshed 2. History of Henry WI, and Daniel the poet, 
in his Histo?y of England to the Time of Edward IJL, 
16 [3-18, was one of the first to throw history into such 
a literary form as to make it popular. Knolles' 
History of the Turks, 1603; and Sir Walter 
Raleigh's vast sketch 01 the History of the World 
show how for the first time history spread itself be- 
yond English interests., Raleigh's book, written in 
the peaceful evening of a stormy life, and in the 
quiet of his prison, is not oniy literary from the 
ease and vigour of its style, but from its still spirit of 
melancholy thought. 

In 1 614, John Selden's Titles of Honour added to 
the accurate work he had done in Latin on the EngHsh 
Records, and his History of Titles was written with 
the same careful regard for truth in 16 18. Thomas 
May, the dramatist, wrote the History of the Parlia- 
ment of Engla7id, which began 1640, for the Parliament 
in 1647, a history with a purpose; but the only book 
of literary note is Thomas Fuller's Chuixh History of 
Britain, 1656. The antiquarian research that makes 
materials for history was carried on by Ashmole, 
Dugdale, and Rush worth, 

89. Miscellaneous Literature. — The pleasure 
of travel, still lingering among us from Elizabeth's 
reign, lound a quaint voice in Thomas Coryat's Cru- 
dities, which, in 1611, describes his journey through 
France and Italy, and in George Sandy's book, 16 15, 
which tells his journey in the East ; while Henry 
Wotton's Lettej's from Italy are pleasant reading. 
The care with which Samuel Purchas, in 1613, en- 
larged Hakluyt's Voyages, brings us back to the time 
when adventure was delight in England, and he con- 
tinued the same work, 1625, under the title of Furchas, 



tr.] ELIZABETH TO THE RESTORATION, in 

his Pilgrimes, The painting of short Characters was 
begun by Sir Thomas Overbury's book in 1614, and 
carried on by John Earle and Joseph Hall, who be- 
came bishops. This kind of literature marks the 
interest in individual life which now began to arise, 
and which soon took form in Biography, Thomas 
Fuller's Hoiy and ProfaJie Stat^ 1642, added to 
sketches of '* characters," illustrations of them in the 
lives of famous persons, and in 1662 his Worthies of 
En^^IaftJ, siiU lurther advanced the literature of bio- 
graphy. He is a quaint and delightful writer ; good 
sense, piety, and inventive wit are woven together in 
his work. We may plice together Robert Burton's 
Anatomy of Melancholy^ 1621, and Sir Thomas 
Browne's Religio Media ^ 1642, and P.cudodoxia as 
books which treat of miscellaneous subjects in a witty 
and learned fashion, but without any true scholarship. 
This kind of writing was greatly increased by the 
setting up of libraries, where men dipped into every 
kind of literature. It was in James I.'s reign that Sir 
Thomas Bodley established the Bodleian at Oxford, 
and Sir Robert Cuttcn a library now placed in the 
British Museum. A number of writers took part in 
the Puritan and Church controversies; but none of 
them deserve, save Milton, and Prynne, and James 
(Jsher, the name of literary men. Usher's work was, 
as an Irish Archbishop, chiefly taken up by the Roman 
Catholic controversy. William Prynne's fierce in- 
vective against the drama in the Histriomasiixj or 
Scourge of Players, earned for him one of the most 
cruel sentences of the Star Chamber. But he out- 
lived imprisonment by both parties, and his Perfect 
Narrative is a graphic account of his efforts to gain 
admission to the House in Charles II. 's reign. Charles 
made him Keeper of the Records, and he spent the 
rest of his varied life in antiquarian researches. In 
pleasant contrast to these controversies appears the 
gende literature of Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler, 



112 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

1653, a book which resembles in its quaint and gar- 
rulous style the rustic scenery and pratding rivers that 
it celebrates, and marks the quiet interest in country 
life which now began to grow in England. 

Theology. — But there were others who rose above 
the war of party on both sides into the calm air of 
spiritual religion. The English of Lancelot Andrewe's 
pious learning was excelled by the poetic prose of 
Jeremy Taylor, who, at the close of Charles I.'s 
reign, published his Great Exemplar and the Holy 
Living and Dyings and shortly afterwards his Ser7nons, 
They had been preceded in 1647 by his Liberty of 
Frophesyi?2g, in which, agreeing with John Hales 
and William Chillingworth, who wrote during the 
reign of Charles I., he pleaded the cause of religious 
liberty and toleration, and of rightness of hfe as 
more important than a correct theology, and did 
the same kind of work for freedom of BibHcal in- 
terpretation as Milton strove to do in his System 
of Christian Doctrine, Taylor's work is especially 
literary. Weighty with argument, his books are even 
more read for their sweet and deep devotion, for 
their rapid, impassioned and convoluted eloquence. 
On the other side, the fine sermons of Richard Sibbes 
converted Richard Baxter, whose manifold literary 
work only ended in the reign of James II. One 
little thing of his, written at the close of the Civil 
War, became a household book in England. There 
used to be few cottages which did not possess a copy 
of the Saints' Everlasting Rest, A vast number of 
sects arose during the Commonwealth, but the only 
one which gave birth to future literature was started 
by George Fox, the first Quaker. 

The style of nearly all these writers links them to the 
age of EUzabeth. It did not follow the weighty gravity 
of Hooker, or the balanced calm and splendour of 
Bacon, but rather the witty quaintness of Lyly and 
of Sidne3% The prose of men like Browne and 



v.] ELIZABETH TO THE RESTORATION. 113 

Burton and Fuller is not as poetic as that of these 
Elizabethan writers, but it is just as fanciful. Even 
the prose of Jeremy Taylor is over - poetical, and 
though it has all the Elizabethan ardour, it has also 
the Elizabethan faults of excessive wordiness and 
fantastic wit. It never knows where to stop. Mil- 
ton's prose works, which shall be mentioned in their 
place in his life, are also Elizabethan in style. 
They have the fire and violence, the eloquence and 
diffuseness, of the earlier literature, but in spite ol 
the praise their style has received, it can in reality be 
scarcely called a style. It has all the faults a prose 
style can have except obscurity and vulgarity. Its 
magnificent bursts of eloquence ought to be in poetry, 
and it never charms except when Milton becomes 
purposely simple in personal narrative. There is no 
pure style in prose writing till Hobbes began to write 
in English — indeed we may say till after the Restora- 
tion, unless w-e except, on grounds of weight and 
power, the styles of Bacon and Hooker. 

90. The Decline of Poetry. — The various 
elements which we have noticed in the poetry of 
Elizabeth^s reign, without the exception even of the 
slight Catholic element, though opposed to each 
other, were filled with one spirit — the love of England 
and the Queen. Nor were they ever sharply divided; 
they are found interwoven, and modifying one 
another in the same poet, as for instance Puritanism 
and Chivalry in Spenser, Catholicism and Love in 
Constable ; and all are mixed together in Shakspere 
and the dramatists. This unity of spirit in poetry 
became less and less after the queen's death. The 
elements remained, but they were separated. The 
cause of this was that the strife in politics between 
the Divine Right of Kings and Liberty, and in religion 
between the Church and the Puritans, grew so defined 
and intense that England ceased to be at one, and the 
poets represented the parties, not the whole, of Eng- 



114 ENGLISH literature: [chap. 

land. But they all shared in a certain style which 
induced Johnson to call them metaphysicaL " They 
were those," Hallam says, ^*who laboured after con- 
ceits, or novel turns of thougiu, usually false, and 
resting on some equivocation of language or exceed- 
ingly remote analogy.'* This style, originating in the 
Euphues and Arcadia^ was driven out by the passion 
which filled poetry in the middle period of EHza- 
beth's reign, but was taken up again towards its 
close, and grew after her death until it ended by 
greatly lessening good sense and clearness in Eng- 
lish poetry. It was in the reaction from it, and in 
the determination to bring clear thought and clear 
expression of thought into English verse, that the 
school of Dryden and Pope — the critical school — 
began. The poetry from the later years of Elizabeth 
to Milton illustrates all these remarks. 

91. The JLyric Poetry struck a new note in the 
songs of Ben Jonson, such as the Hymn to Diana, 
They are less natural, less able to be sung than 
Shakspere's, more classical, more artificial. Drayton's 
Agincow is one of the many lyrics still written on the 
glories of England, and Wither in some of his songs 
still recalls the Elizabethan charm. In Charles I.'s reign 
the lyrics of dramatists like Ford, Shirley, Webster, 
and others, retain the same charm. But none of 
them have any special tendency. A new character, 
royalist and of the court, now appears in the lyrics of 
Thomas Carew, Edmund Waller, Abraham Cow- 
ley, Sir John Suckling, Colonel Lovelace, and 
Robert Her rick whose Hesperides was published in 
1648. They are, for the most part, light, pleasant, 
short songs and epigrams on the passing interests of 
the day, on the charms of the court beauties, on a 
lock of hair, a dress, on all the fleeting forms of 
fleeting love. Here and there we find a pure or 
pathetic song, and there are few of them which time 
has selected that do not possess a gay or a gentle 



v.] ELIZABETH TO THE RESTORATION. 115 

grace. As the Civil War deepened, the special court 
poetry died, and the songs became songs of battle 
and marching, and devoted and violent loyalty. These 
have been lately collected under the title of Songs of 
the Cavaliers, Midst of them all, like voices from 
another world, purer, more musical, and filled with 
the spirit of fine art, were heard the lyrical strains of 
Milton. 

92. Satirical Poetry, always arising when natural 
passion in poetry decays, is represented in the later 
days of EHzabeth by Marston the dramatist's coarse 
but vigorous satires, and Joseph Hall, afterwards 
Bishop Hall, whose Virgidemiaru7n^ 1597? satires partly 
in poetry, make him the master satirist of this time* 
John Donne, Dean of St. Paul's, who also partly 
belongs to the age of Elizabeth, was, with John 
Cleveland (a furious royalist and satirist of Charles I.*s 
time), the most obscure and fanciful of these poets. 
Donne, however, rose above the rest in the beauty 
of thought and in the tenderness of his religious and 
love poems. His satires are graphic pictures of the 
manners of the age of James I. George Wither hit 
the follies and vices of the days so hard in his Abuses 
Stnpt arid Whipt^ 16 13, that he was put into the 
Marshalsea prison and there continued his satires in 
the Shepherd's Hunting. As the Puritan and the 
Royalist became more opposed to one another, 
satirical poetry naturally became more bitter \ but, 
like the lyrical poetry of the Civil War, it took the 
form of short songs and pieces which went about 
the country, as those of Bishop Corbet did, in manu- 
script. 

93. The Rural Poetry. — The pastoral now 
began to take a more truly rural form than the conven- 
tional pastorals of France and Italy, out of which it 
rose. In William Browne's Britannids Pastorals, 
161 3 (second part, 1616), followed by the seven 
eclogues of the Shepherd's Fipe^ th^ element of 



Ii6 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chAp. 

pleasure in country life arises, and from this time it 
begins to grow in our poetry. It appears slightly in 
Wither's Shepherd's Hunti?ig^ but plainly in his 
Mistress of Philarete^ while Denham's Cooper s Hiil, 
1643, introduces the poetry which makes natural land- 
scape the ground of philosophic meditation. This 
element of enjoyment of nature, seen already in 
Walton's Cojnpleat Angler, is most strong in Andrew 
Marvell, Milton's friend. In imaginative intensity, 
in the fusing together of personal feeling and thought 
with the delight received from nature, his verses on 
the £ migrants in the Bermudas and the Thoughts in 
c Garden^ and the little poem, The Girl Describes her 
Fawns are like the work of Wordsworth on one side, 
and like good Elizabethan work on the other. They 
are, with Milton's songs, the last and the truest echo 
of the lyrics of the time of Elizabeth, but they reach 
beyond them in the love of nature. 

94. Spcnserians. — Among these broken-up forms 
of poetry, there was one kind which was imitative of 
Spenser. Phineas Fletcher, Giles Fletcher, 
Henry More in his Flatonical ^on^ of the ^ouly 
1642, and John Chalkhill in his Thealma, owned 
him as their master. The Purple Island, 1633, of 
the first, an elaborate allegory of the body and mind 
of man, has some grace and sweetness, and tells us 
that the scientific element, which, after the Restoration 
took form in the setting up of the Royal Society, was 
so far spread in England at his time as to influence 
the poets. 

95. Religious Poetry. — The Temptation and 
Victory of Christ, 16 10, of Giles Fletcher, is a deli- 
cately-wrought poem, and gave hints to Milton for the 
Paradise Pegained. It was a finished piece, but the 
religious poetry chiefly took form in collections of short 
poems. Among these we mention William Drum- 
mond's Flowers of Sioji in which Platonism lingered, 
and Donne's religious poems in which he showed his 



v.] ELIZABETH TO THE RESTORATION. 117 

ingenuity more than his devotion. Of them all, how- 
ever, the Temple, 163 1, of George Herbert, rector 
of Bemerton, has been the most popular. The purity 
and profound devotion of its poems have made it 
dear to all. Its gentle Church feeling has pleased all 
classes of Churchmen ; its great quaintness, which 
removes it from true poetry, has added perhaps to its 
charm. With him we must rank Henry Vaughan, the 
Silurist, whose Sacred Poems (1651;, are equally devo- 
tional, pure, and quaint ; and Francis Quarles, whose 
Divine Emblems, 1635, is still read in the cottages of 
England. On the Roman Catholic side, William 
Habington mingled his devotion to his religion 
with the praises of his wife under the name of Castara^ 
1634; and Richard Crashaw, whose rich inventive- 
ness was not made less rich by the religious mysticism 
which finally led him to become a Roman Catholic, 
published his Sttps to the Temple in 1646. On the 
Puritan side, we may now place George Wither, 
whose Hallehcjah, 1641, a series of rehgious poems, 
was sent forth just before the Civil War began, when 
he left the king's side to support the Parliament. 
Even Herrick, in 1648, expressed the pious part of his 
nature in his Noble Numbers, Finally, religious poetry, 
after the return of Charles II., passed on through the 
Davideis of Abraham Cowley, and the Divine Love 
of Edmund Waller, to find its highest expression in 
the Paradise Lost. We have thus traced through all 
its forms the decline of poetry. From this decay we 
pass into a new created world when we come to 
speak of Milton. Between the dying poetry of the 
past and the uprising of a new kind of poetry in 
Dryden, stands alone the majestic work of a great 
genius who touches the Ehzabethan time with one 
hand and our own time with the other. 

96. John Milton was the last of the Elizabethans, 
and, except Shakspere, far the greatest of them all 
Born in 1608, in Bread-street (close by the Mermaid 



1 18 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

Tavern), he may have seen Shakspere, for he re- 
mained till he was sixteen in London. His literary 
life may be said to begin with his entrance into Cam- 
bridge, in 1625, the year of the accession of Charles I.. 
Nicknamed the ^' Lady of Clirist's^' from his beauty 
and delicate taste and morality, he soon attained a, 
great fame, and during the seven years of his life at 
the university his poetic genius opened itself in the 
English poems of which I give the dates. On the 
Death of a Fair Infant, 1626. At a Vacation Exercise, 
1628. On the Morning of Christ s Nativity, 1629. 
On the Circumcision, On Time, At a Solemn Mustek, 
The Passion, Epitaph on Shah per e, 1630. On the 
UMiversity Carrier, Epitaph on Marchioness of Woi'- 
cester, 16^1 ; Sonnet i., On Attaining the Age of Twenty- 
three ; Sonnet a., To the Night ijigale. The first sonnet, 
explained by a letter that accompanied it, shows that 
Milton had given up his intention of becoming a 
clergyman. He left the university in 1632, and went 
to live at Hortoa, near Windsor, where he spent five 
years, steadily reading the Greek and Latin writers, 
and amusing himself with mathematics and music. 
Poetry was not neglected. The Allegro and Pense- 
roso were written in 1633, and probably the Arcades; 
Comics was acted in 1634, and Lycidas composed in 
1637. Thty prove that though Milton was Puritan in 
heart his Puritanism was of that earlier type which 
neither disdained the arts nor letters. But they re- 
present a growing revolt from the Court and the 
Church. The Pen serosa prefers the contemplative 
life to the mirthful, and Comus, though a masque, 
rose into a poem to the glory of temperance, and 
under its allegory attacked the Court. Three years 
later, Lycidas interrupts its exquisite stream of poetry 
with a fierce and resolute onset on the greedy 
shepherds of the Church. Milton had taken his 
Presbyterian bent 

In 1638 he went to Italy, the second borne of so 



v.] ELIZABETH TO THE RESTORATION, 119 

many of the English poets, and visited Florence, 
where he saw GaUleo, and Rome. At Naples he 
heard the sad news of civil war, which determined 
him to return ; *' inasmuch as 1 thought it base to be 
iravelUng at my ease for amusement, while my fellow- 
countrymen at home w^ere fighting for libeity." But 
hearing that the war had not yet arisen, he remained 
in Italy till the end of 1639, and at the meeting of 
the Long Parliament we find him in a house in 
Aldersgate, where he lived till 1645. He had pro- 
jected while abroad a great epic poem on the subject 
of Arthur (again the Welsh subject returns), but in 
London his mmd changed, and among a number of 
subjects, tendod at last to Paradise Lost, which he 
meant to throw into the form of a Greek Tragedy 
with lyrics and choruses. 

97. Milton's Prose — The Commonwealth. 
— Suddenly his whole life changed, and for twenty 
years — 1 640-1 660 — he was carried out of art into 
politics, out of poetry into prose. Most of the Son- 
nets^ however, belong to this time. Stately, rugged, 
or graceful, as he pleased to make them, some like 
Hebrew psalms, others having the classic ease of 
Horace, some even tender as Milton could gravely be, 
they are true, unlike those of Shakspere and Spenser, 
to the correct form of this difficult kind of poetry. 
But they were all he could now do of his true work. 
Before the Civil War began in 1642, he had written 
five vigorous pamphlets against Episcopacy. Six more 
pamphlets appeared in the next two years. One of 
these was the Areopagitica ; or, Speech for the Liberty 
of Unlicensed Printing, 1644, a bold and eloquent 
attack on the censorship of the press by the Presby- 
terians. Another was a tract on Education. The 
four pamphlets in which he advocated conditional 
divorce made him still more the horror of the 
Presbyterians. In 1646 he pubhshed his poems, and 
m that year the sonnet On the Forcers of Conscience 

W 



1^6- ENGLISH LITER A TUKE, [chap. 

shows that he had wholly ceased to be Presbyterian. 
His political pamphlets begin when his Tenure of 
Kings and Magistrates defended in 1649 the execu- 
tion of the king. The Eikonoclastes answered the 
Eikon Basilike (a portraiture of the sufferings of the 
king by Dr. Gauden), and his famous Latin Defence 
for the People of England^ 165 1, repHed to Salmasius* 
Defence of Charles Z, and inflicted so pitiless a lashing 
on the great Leyden scholar, that his fame went over 
the whole of Europe. In the next year he wholly 
lost his sight. But he continued his work (being 
Latin secretary since 1649) when Cromwell was made 
Protector, and wrote another Defence for the Eng- 
lish People^ 1654, and a further Defence of himself 
against scurrilous charges. This closed the controversy 
in 1655. In the last year of the Protector's life he 
began the Paradise Lost, but the death of Cromwell 
threw him back into politics, and three more pamphlets 
on the questions of a Free Church and a Free Com- 
monwealth were useless to prevent the Restoration. 
It was a wonder he was not put to death in 1660, and 
he was in hiding and in custody for a time. At last 
he settled in a house near Bunhill Fields. It was 
here that Paradise Lost was finished, before the end 
of 1665, and then published in 1667. 

98. Paradise Lost. — We may regret that Milton 
was shut away from his art during twenty years of con- 
troversy. But it may be that the poems he wrote, 
when the great cause he fought for had closed in 
seeming defeat but real victory, gained from its solemn 
issues and from the moral grandeur with which he 
wrought for its ends their majestic movement, their 
grand style, and their grave beauty. During the struggle 
he had never forgotten his art. " I may one day hope," 
he said, speaking of his youthful studies, "• to have ye 
again, in a still time, when there shall be no chiding. 
Not in these Noises," and the saying strikes the note 
of calm sublimity which is kept in Paradise Lost, It 



V.J ELIZABETH TO THE RESTORATION. 121 

opens with the awaking of the rebel angels in Hell 
after iheir fall from Heaven, the consultaiion of their 
chiefs how best to carry on the war with God, and the 
resolve of Satan to go forth and tempt newly created 
man to fall. He takes his flight to the earth and finds 
Eden. Eden is then described, and Adam and Eve 
in their innocence. The next four books, from the 
fifth to the eighth, contain the Archangel Raphael's 
story of the war in Heaven, the fall of Satan, and 
the creation of the world. The last four books de- 
scribe the temptation and the fall of Man, the vision 
shown by Michael to Adam of the future world, and 
of the redemption of Man by Christ, and finally 
the expulsion from Paradise. 

As we read the great epic, we feel that the light- 
ness of heart of the Aikgro, that even the classic philo- 
sophy of the Comus^ are gone^ The beauty of the 
poem is like that of a stately temple, which, vast in con- 
ception, is involved in detail. The style is the greatest 
in the whole range of English poetry. Milton's intel- 
lectual force supports and condenses his imaginative 
force, and his art is almost too conscious ot itself. 
Sublimity is its essential difference. The interest of 
the story collects at first round the character of Satan, 
but he grows meaner as the poem goes on, and his 
second degradation after he has destroyed innocence 
is one of the finest and most consistent motives in 
the poem. The tenderness of Milton, his love of 
beauty, the passionate fitness of his words to his 
work, his religious depth, fill the scenes in which 
he paints Paradise, our parents and their fall, and at 
last all thought and emotion centre round Adam and 
Eve, until the closing lines leave us with their lonely 
image on our minds. In every part of the poem, in 
every character in it, as indeed in all his poems, 
Milton^s intense individuality appears. It is a plea- 
sure to find it. The egotism of such a man, said 
Coleridge, is a revelation of spirit. 



1:22 ENGLISH LITERATURE, ^ [chap. 

99. Milton's Later Pcems. — Paradise Lost was 
followed by Paradise Regained and Sainson Agonistes, 
published together in 167 1. Fai'adise Regained opens 
with the journey of Christ into the wilderness after His 
baptism, and its four books describe the temptation of 
Christ by Satan, and the answers and victory of the 
Redeemer. The speeches in it drown the action, and 
their learned argument is only relieved by a few de- 
scriptions ; but these, as in that of Athens, are done 
with Milton's highest power. The same sohmn beauty 
of a quiet mind and a more severe style than that of 
Fai'adise Lost make us feel in it that Milton has grown 
older. 

In Samson Ag07iistes the style is still severer, even 
to the verge of a harshness which the sublimity alone 
tends to modify. It is a choral drama, after the 
Greek model. Samson in his blindness is described, 
is called on to make sport for the Philistines, and 
overthrows them in the end. Samson represents the 
fallen Puritan cause, and Samson's victorious death 
Milton's hopes for the final triumph of that cause. 
The poem has all the grandeur of the last words 
of a great man in whom there was now **calm of 
mind, all passion spent." It is also the last word of 
the music of the Elizabethan drama long after its 
notes seemed hushed, and the sound is strange in 
the midst of the new world of the Restoration. Soon 
afterwards, November, 1674, blind and old and fallen 
on evil days, Milton died \ but neither blindness, old 
age, nor e/il days could lessen the inward light, nor 
impair the imaginative power with which he sang, it 
seemed with the angels, the "undisturbed song of pure 
concent," until he joined himself, at last, with those 
*' just spirits who wear victorious palms." 

100. His \A/'ork. — lo the greatness of the artist 
Milton joined the majesty of a pure and lofty cha- 
racter. His poetic style was as stately as his character, 
and proceeded from it, living at a time when criti- 



v.] ELIZABETH TO THE RESTORATION. 123 

cism began to purify the verse of England, and being 
himself well acquainted with the great classical models, 
his work is seldom weakened by the fals^ conceits and 
tiie intemperance of the Elizabethan writers, and yet 
IS as imaginative as theirs, and as various. He has 
not their naturalness, nor all their intensity, but he 
his a larger grace, a more finished art, and a sublime 
dignity they did not possess. All the kinds of poetry 
which he touched he touched with the ease of great 
strength, and with so much weight, that they became 
new in his hands. He put a new life into the masque, 
the sonnet, the elegy, the descriptive lyric, the song, 
the choral drama ; and he created the epic in England. 
The lighter love poem he never wrote, and we are 
grateful that he kept his coarse satirical power apart from 
his poetry. In some points he was untrue to his descent 
from the Elizabethans, for he had no dramatic faculty, - 
and he had no humour. He summed up in himself 
the learned influences of the English Renaissance, and 
handed them on to us. His taste was as severe, his verse 
as poUshed, his method and language as strict as those 
of the school of Dryden and Pope that ^rew up when 
he was old. A literary past and present thus met in 
him, nor did he fail, like all the greatest men, to make 
a cast into the future. He began the poetry of pure 
natural description. Lastly, he did not represent in 
any way the England that followed the tyranny, the 
coarseness, the sensuality, the falseness, or the ir- 
religion of the Stuarts, but he did represent Puritan 
England, and the whole career of Puritanism from 
its cradle to its grave. 

loi. The Pilgrim's Progress. — We might say 
that Puritanism said its last great words with Milton, 
were it not that its spirit continued in English life, 
were it not also that four years afier his death, in 
[678, JOHNT Bun VAN, who had previously written 
religious poems, and in 1665 the Holy Cily, published 
the Pilgrim's Progress^ It is the journey of Christian 



124 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

the Pilgrim, from the City of Destruction to the 
Celestial City. The second part was pubUshed in 1684, 
and in \\^Z2 the allegory of the Holy IV ar. I class the 
Pilgri77i^ s Progress here, because in its imaginative 
fervour and poetry, and in its quality of naturalness, 
it belongs to the spirit of the Elizabethan times. 
Written by a man of the people, it is a people^s book ; 
and its simple form grew out of passionate feeling, and 
not out of self-conscious art. The passionate feeling 
was religious, and in painting the pilgrim's progress 
towards Heaven, and his battle with the world and 
temptation, and sorrow, the book touched those deep 
and poetical interests which belong to poor and 
rich. Its language, the language of the Bible, and its 
allegorical form, set on foot a plentiful literature of 
the same kind. But none have equalled it. Its form 
is almost epic : its dramatic dialogue, its clear types 
of character, its vivid descriptions, as of Vanity Fair, 
and of places such as the Dark Valley and the Delect- 
able Mountains which represent states of the human 
soul, have given an equal but a different pleasure to 
children and men, to the ignorant villager and to 
Lord Macaulay. 



viO RESTORAJION TO DEATH OF POPE. 125 



CHAPTER VI. 

FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE DEATH OF POPE 
AND SWIFT. 

1660-1745. 

Butler's Hudibras^ 1663-— !• Dryden, born 1631 ; his Dramas 
begin 1663 ; Absalom and Ahitophly 1681 ; Hind and 
Panther, J687 ; Fables and death, 1700.— Wycberley, 
Congreve, Farquhar, and Vanhrugh, Dramas^ from 1672- 
1726. — Newton's Principia^ 1687. — Locke's Fssay on the 
Human Understandings 1690- — Alexander Pope, bom 
1688 ; Pastorals, 1709 ; Rape of the Lock, 1712 ; Homer 
finished, 1725: Fssay on Man, 17324734:; Dunciad 
finished, 1741; dies, 1744.— Swift's Tale of a Tub, 1704; 
Gullivers Travels, 3726- — Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, 1719- 
.Steele and Addison, Spectator, 1711. — Addison's Cato, 
1713 ; Butler's Analogy, 1736- 

102. Poetry. Change of Style. — We have seen 
the natural style as distinguished from the artificial in 
the Elizabethan poets. Style became not only natural 
but artistic when it was used by a great genius like 
Shakspere or Spenser, for a first-rate poet creates 
rules of art ; his work itself is often art. But when 
the art of poetry is making, its rules are not laid down, 
and the second-rate poets, inspired only by their feel- 
ings, will write in a natural style unrestrained by rules, 
that is, they will put their feelings into verse without 
caring much for the form in which they do it. As 
long as they live in the midst of a youthful national 
life, and feel an ardent sympathy with it, their style 
will be fresh and impassioned, and give pleasure be- 
cause of the strong feeling that inspires it. But it 
will also be extravagant and unrestrained in its use of 



126 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

images and words because of its want of art. 1 liis is 
the history of the style of the poets of the middle 
period of Elizabeth's reign. (2) Afterwards the na- 
tional life grew chill, and the feelings of the poets 
also chill. Then the want of art in the style made 
itself felt. The far-fetched images, the hazarded 
meanings, the over-fanciful way of putting thoughts, 
the sensational expression of feeling, in which the 
Elizabethan poets indulged, not only appeared in 
all their uglmess when they were inspired by no 
warm feeling, but were indulged in far more than 
bjfore. Men tried to produce by extravagant use 
of words the same results that ardent fejling had 
produced, and the more they failed the more ex- 
travagant and fantastic they became, till at last 
their poetry ceased to have clear meaning. This is 
the history of the style of the poets from the later 
days of Elizabeth till the Civil War. (3) The natural 
style, unregulated by art, had thus become unnatural. 
When it had reached that point, men began to feel 
how necessary it was that the style of poetry should 
be subjected to the rules of art, and two influences 
partly caused and partly supported this desire. One 
was the influence of Milton. Milton, flrst by his superb 
genius, which as I said creates of itself an artistic 
style, and secondly by his knowledge and imitation 
of the great classical models, was able to give the 
first example in England of a pure, grand, and 
finished style, and in blank verse and the sonnet, 
wrote for the first time with absolute correctness. 
Another influence was that of the movement all over 
Europe towards inquiry into the right way of doing 
things, and into the truth of things, a movement we 
shall soon see at work in science, pohtics, and religion. 
In poetry it produced a school of criticism which 
first took form in France, and the influence of Boileau, 
La Fontaine, and others who were striving after 
greater finish and neatness of expression, told on Eng- 



VI.] RESTORATION TO DEATH OF POPE, 127 

land now. It is an influence which has been ex- 
aggerated. It is absurd to place the " creaking 
lyre'* of Boileau side by side with Dryden's "long 
majestic march and energy divine " of verse. Our 
cridcal school of poets have no French qualities in 
diem even when they imitate the French. (4) Further, 
our own poets had already, before the Restoration, 
begun the critical work, and the French influence 
served only to give it a greater impulse. We shall 
see the growth of a colder and more correct spirit of 
art in Cowley, Denham, and Waller. Vigorous form 
was given to that spirit by Dryden, and perfection 
of artifice added to it by Pope. The artificial style 
succeeded to and extinguished the natural, 

103. Change of Poe.ic Subject. — The subject 
of the Elizabethan poets was Man as mflusnced by the 
Passions, and it was treated from the side of natural 
feeling. This was fully an I splendidly done by Shak- 
spere. But after a tmie this subject followe(], as we 
have seen in speaking of the drama, the same career 
as the style. It was treated in an extravagant and 
sensational manner, and the representation of the pas- 
sions tended to become, and did become unnatural or 
fantastic. Milton alone redeemed the subject from 
this vicious excess. He wrote in a grave and natural 
manner of the passions of the human h:art, and he 
made strong the religious passions of love of God, 
sorrow for sin, and others, in English poetry. But with 
him the subject of man as influenced by the passions 
died for a time. Dryden, Pope, and their followers, 
turned to another. I'hey left the passions aside, and 
wrote of the things in which the intellect and the con- 
science, the social and polidcal instincts in man 
were interested. \n this way the satiric, didactic, 
philosophical, and party poetry of a new school arose, 

104. Transition Poets. — There were a few 
poets, writing partly before and partly after the Re- 
storation^ who represent the passage from the fantastic 



I2S ENGLISH LITERATURE. . [chap, 

to the more correct style. Abraham Cowley was one 
of these. His love poems, The Mistress^ 1647, are 
courtly, witty, and have some of the Elizabethan 
imagination. His later poems, owing probably to 
his life in France, were more exact in verse, and 
more cold in form. The same may be said of Edmund 
Waller, who ^' first made writing in rhyme easily 
an art." He also lived a long time in France, and 
died in 1687. Sir John Denham's Cooper's Hill^ 1643, 
was a favourite with Dryden for the ^'majesty of 
its style,'* and its didactic reflectiveness, and the chill 
stream of its verse and thought link him closely to 
Pope. Nor ought I to omit, as an example of the 
heroic poem, William Chamberlayne's F/iaronnida, 
1659. Sir W. Davenant's Gondibert, 1651, also an 
heroic poem, is perhaps the most striking example of 
this transition. Worthless as poetry, it represents the 
new interest in political philosophy and in science that 
was arising, and preludes the intellectual poetry. Its 
preface discourses of rime and the* rules of art, and 
represents the new critical influence which came 
over with the exiled court from France, The critical 
school had therefore begun even before Dryden's 
poems were written. The change was less sudden 
than it seemed. 

Satiric poetry, soon to become a' greater thing, was 
made during this transition time into a powerful weapon 
by two men. each on a difl'erent side. Andrew MarvelFs 
Satires, after the Restoration, embody the Puritan's 
wrath with the vices of the court and king, and his 
shame for the disgrace of England among thenationSo 
The Hudibras of Samuel Butler, in 1663, represents 
the fierce reaction which had set in against Puritanism. 
It is justly famed for wit, learning, good sense, and 
ingenious drollery, and, in accordance with the new 
criticism, it is absolutely without obscurity. It is 
often as terse as Pope's best work. But it is too 
long, its wit wearies us at last, and it undoes the force 



VI.] RESTORATION TO DEATH OF POPE, 129 

of its attack on the Puritans by its exaggeration. 
Satire should have at least the semblance of truth : 
yet Butler calls the Puritans cowards. We turn now 
to the first of these poets in whom poetry is founded 
on intellect rather than on feeling, and whose best 
verse is devoted to argument and satire. 

105. John Dryden was the first of the new, as 
Milton was the last of the elder, school of poetry. 
It was late in life that he gained fame. Born in 
1 63 1, he was a Cromwellite till the Restoration, 
when he began the changes which mark his life. 
His poem on the Death of the Protector was soon 
followed by the Asircea Redux, which celebrated 
the return of Justice to the realm in the person of 
Charles II. The Aimus Mirabilis appeared in 1667, 
and in this his great power was first clearly shown. 
It is the power of clear reasoning expressing itself 
with powerful and ardent ease in a rapid succession 
of condensed thoughts in verse. Such a power fitted 
Dryden for satire, and his Absalom and Ahitophel, the 
second part of w^hich was mostly written by Nahum 
Tate, is the foremost of English satires. He had 
been a play writer till its appearance in 1681, and the 
rimed plays which he had written enabled him to per- 
fect the versification which is so remarkable in it and 
the poems that followed. The satire itself, written in 
mockery of the Popish Plot and the Exclusion Bill, 
attacked Shaftesbury as Ahitophel, was kind to Mon- 
mouth as Absalom, and in its sketch of Buckingham 
as Zimri the poet avenged himself for the Rehearsal, 
It was the first fine example of that party poetry which 
became still more bitter and personal in the hands of 
Pope. It was followed by the Medal, a new attack on 
Shaftesbury, and the Mac Flecknoe, in which Shadwell, 
a rival poet, who had supported Shaftesbury's party, 
was made the witless successor of Richard Flecknoe, a 
poet of all kinds of poetry, and master of none. After 
these, Dryden embodied his theology in verse, and the 



I30 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [CHAP. 

Religlo Zaia\ 1682, defends, and states the argument 
for, the Church of England. It was perhaps poverty 
that drove him on the accession of James 11. to 
change his reUgion^ and the Hind and Panther^ 1687, 
is as fine a model of clear reasonmg in behalf of 
the milk-white hind of the Church of Rome as the 
Religio Laid was in behalf of the Church of England, 
which now becomes the spotted panther. It produced 
in reply one of the happiest burlesques in English 
poetry, The Country Mouse and the City Mouse, the 
work of Charles Montague (Lord Halifax), and 
Mat Prior. Deprived of his offices at the Revo- 
lution, Dryden turned again to the drama, but the 
failure of the last of his good plays in 1694, drove 
him again from the stage, and he gave himself up 
to his Translation of Ven^il wiiich he finished in 1696. 
As a narrative poet his Fables and Translations, pro- 
duced late in life, in 1699, give him a high rank, 
though the fine harmony of their verse does not win 
us to forget their coarseness, nor their lack of that 
skill in arranging a story which comes from imagina- 
tive feeling. As a lyric poet his fame rests on the 
animated Ode for St. Cecilia' s Day. His translation 
of Vergil has fire, but wants the dignity and tender- 
ness of the original. From Milton's death, 1674, till 
his own in 1700, Dryden reigned undisputed, and 
round his throne in Will's Coffeehouse, where he sat 
as ^* Glorious John,'' we may place the names of the 
lesser poets, the Earls of Dorset, Roscommon, and 
Mulgrave, Sir Charles Sedley, and the Earl of Roches- 
ter. The lighter poetry of the court lived on in the 
two last. John Oldham won a short fame by his 
Safwes on the Jesuits, 1679 ; and Bishop Ken, 1668, set 
on foot, in his Morning and Evening Hymns, a new 
type of religious poetry. 

T06. Prose Literature of the Restoration 
and Revolution. Science. — During the Civil War 
the religious and political struggle absorbed the 



VI J RESTORATION TO DEATH OF POPE. 131 

country, but yet, apart from the strife, a few men whci 
cared for scientific matters met at one another's houses. 
Out of this little knot, after the Restoration, arose the 
Royal Society, embodied in 1662. Astronomy, ex- 
perimental chemistry, medicine, mineralogy, zoology, 
botany, vegetable physiology were all founded as 
studies, and tlieir literature begun in the age of the 
Restoration. One man's work was so great in science 
as to merit his name being mentioned among the 
literary men of England. In 1671 Isaac Newton 
laid his Theory of Light before the Royal Society ; 
in the year before the Revolution his Pri?icipia estab- 
lished with its proof of the theory of gravitation the 
true system of the universe. 

It was in political and reHgious knowledge, however, 
that the intellectual inquiry of the nation was most 
shown. When the thinking spirit succeeds the active 
and adventurous in a people, one of the first things 
they will think upon is the true method and grounds 
of government, both divine and human. Two sides 
will be taken : the side of authority and the side of 
reason in Religion ; the side of authority and the 
side of individual liberty in Politics. 

107. The Theological Literature of those who 
declared that reason was supreme as a test of truth, 
arose with some men who met at Lord Falkland's 
just before the Civil War, and especially with John 
Hales and WiUiam Chillingworth. The spirit which 
animated these men filled also Jeremy Taylor, and 
Milton continued their liberal movement beyond the 
Restoration. The same kind of work, though modified 
towards moresedatenessof expression, and less rational- 
istic, was now donebyArchbishopTillotson, and Bishop 
Burnet. In 1678, Cudworth's hitellectual System of the 
Universe is perhaps the best book on the controversy 
which then took form against those who were called 
Atheists. A number of divines in the English Church 
took sides for Authority or Reason, or opposed the 
12 



t32 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

growing Deism during the latter half of the seventeenth 
century. It was an age of preachers, and Isaac Barrow, 
Newton's predecessor in the chair of mathematics at 
Cambridge, could preach, with grave and copious 
eloquence, for three hours at a time. Theological 
prose was strengthened by the publication of the 
sermons of Edward StilHngfleet and William Sherlock, 
and Sherlock's adversary, Robert South, was as witty 
in rhetoric as he was fierce in controversy. 

io8. Political Literature. — The resistance to 
authority in the opposition to the theory of the Divine 
Right of Kings did not enter into Hterature till after 
it had been worked out practically in the Civil War. 
During the Commonwealth and after the Restoration it 
took the form of a discussion on the abstract question 
of the Science of Government, and was mingled with 
an inquiry into the origin of society and the ground of 
social life. Milton's papers on the Divorce Question 
and his little tractate on Education were bold attempts 
to solve social questions, and his political tracts after 
the death of Cromwell, though directed to the ques- 
tions of Church and State which were burning then, 
have a bearing beyond their time. But Thomas 
HoBBES, during the Commonwealth, was the first 
who dealt with the question from the side of abstract 
reason, and he is also the first of all our prose writers 
whose style may be said to be uniform and correct, 
and adapted carefully to the subjects on which he 
wrote. His treatise, the Leviathan^ 1651, declared 
(i) that the origin of all power was in the people, and 
(2) the end of all power was for the common weal. It 
destroyed the theory of a Divine Right of Kings and 
Priests, but it created another kind of Divine Right 
when it said that the power lodged in rulers by the 
people could not be taken away by the people. Sir 
R. Filmer supported the side of Divine Right in his 
Patriarcha^ pubhshed 1680. Henry Nevile, in his 
Dialogue concerjwig Govei^nment^ and James Har- 



VL ] RESTORA TION TO BE A TH OF POPE. 133 

rington in his romance, The Co7nmomuealth of Oceana^ 
published at the beginning of the Commonwealth, 
contended that all secure government was to be based 
on property, but Nevile supported a monarchy, and 
Harrington — with whom I may class Algernon Sidney, 
whose political treatise on government is as states- 
manlike as it is finely written — a democracy, on this 
basis. I may here mention that it was during this 
period, in 1667, that the first effort was made after a 
Science of Political Economy by Sir William Petty in 
his Treatise on Taxes. 

109. John Locke, after the Revolution, in 1689- 
1690, followed the two doctrines of Hobbes in his 
treatise on Civil Government^ but with these important 
additions— (i) that the people have a right to take 
away the power* given by them to the ruler, (2) that 
the ruler is responsible to the people for the trust 
reposed in him, and (3) that legislative assemblies 
are Supreme as the voice of the people. This was 
the political philosophy of the Revolution. Locke 
carried the same spirit of free inquiry into the realm 
of religion, and in his three Letters o?i Toleration, 
1689-90-92, laid down the philosophical grounds foi 
liberty of religious thought. He finished by entering 
the realm of metaphysical inquiry. In 1690 appeared 
his Essay concerning the Human Understanding, in 
which he investigated its limits, and traced all ideas, 
and therefore all knowledge, to experience. In his 
clear statement of the way in which the Under- 
standing works, in the way in which he guarded it 
and Language against their errors in the inquiry after 
truth, he did as much for the true method of thinking 
as Bacon had done for the Science of nature. 

no. The intellectual stir of the time produced, 
apart from the great movement of thought, a good 
deal ot Miscellaneous Literature. The painting 
of short ''characters'' was carried on after the Resto- 
ration by Samuel Butler and W. Charleton. These 



134 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

••'characters " had no personality, but as party spirit 
deepened, names thinly disguised were given to 
characters drawn of Uving men, and Dryden and Pope 
in poetry and all the prose wits of the time of Queen 
\nrie and George I. made personal and often violent 
sketches of their opponents a special element in litera- 
ure. On the other hand, Izaak Walton's Lives^ in 1670, 
are examples of kindly, pleasant, and QdJtiwl Biography, 
Cowley's small volume, written shortly before his death 
in 1667, and Dryden,in the masterly criticisms on his art 
which he prefixed to some of his dramas, gave richness 
io the Essay, These two writers began — with Hobbes 
— the second period of English prose, in which the 
style is easy, unaffected, moulded to the subject, and 
the proper words are put in their proper places. It is 
as different from the style that came before it as the 
easy manners of a gentleman are from those of a 
learned man unaccustomed 1 o society. In William III.^s 
time Sir W. Temple's })leasant Essays bring us in style 
and tone nearer to the great class of essayists of whom 
Addison was chief. Lady Rachel Russell's Letters 
begin the Letter-7vnting Literature of England. Pepys 
(1660-69) and Evelyn, whose Diary grows full after 
1640, begm that class of gossiping Memoirs w^hich have 
been of so much use in giving colour to history. History 
itself at this time is little better than memoirs, and 
such a name may be fairly given to Clarendon's History 
of the Ci%nl Wars (begun in 1641) and to Bishop 
Burnet's History of his Own Time, and to his History 
of the /Reformation (btgun in 1679, completed in 17 15). 
Finally Classical Criticism, in the discussion on the 
genuineness of the Letters of Phalaris, was created 
hy Richard Bentley in 1697-99. Literature was 
therefore plentiful. It was also correct, but it was not 
inventive. 

III. The Literature of Queen Anne and 
the first Georges. — With the closing years of 
William III. and the accession of Queen Anne (1702) 



VI.] RESTORATION TO DEATH OF POPE, 135 

a literature arose which was partly new and partly a 
continuance of that of the Restoration. The contiict 
between those who took the oath to the new dynasty 
and the Nonjurors who refused, the hot blood that it 
produced, the war between Dissent and Church, and 
between the two parties which now took the names of 
Whig and Tory, produced a mass of political pamph- 
lets, of which Daniel Defoe's and Swift's were the 
best ; of songs and ballads, like Liliibuliero, which 
were sung in every street j of $quibs, reviews, and 
satirical poems and letters. Every one joined in it, 
and it rose to importance in the work of the greater 
men who mingled literary studies with their politi- 
cal excitement. In politics all the abstract discus- 
sions we have mentioned ceased to be abstract, and 
became personal and practical, and the spirit of inquiry 
applied itself more closely to the questions of every- 
day life. The whole of this stirring literary life was 
concentrated in London, where the agitation of society 
was hottest ; and it is round this vivid city life that the 
Literature of Queen Anne and the two following reigns 
is best grouped. 

112. It was, with a few exceptions, a Party 
Literature. The Whig and Tory leaders enlisted 
on their sides the best poets and prose-writers, who 
fiercely satirised and unduly praised them under 
names thinly disguised. Our *' Augustan Age" was 
an age of unbridled slander. Personalities were sent 
to and fro like shots in battle. Those who could do 
this work well were well rewarded, but the rank and 
file of writers were left to starve. Literature was thus 
honoured not for itself, but for the sake of party. 
The result was that the abler, men lowered it by 
making it a political tool, and the smaller men, the 
fry of Grub Street, degraded it by using it in the same 
way, only in a baser manner. Their flattery was as 
abj jct as their abuse was shameless, and both were 
stupid. They received and deserved the merciless 



136 • ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chAp. 

lashing which Pope was soon to give them in the 
Dunciad. Being a party literature, it naturally came 
to study and to look sharply into human character 
and into human life as seen in the great city. It 
debated subjects of literary and scientific inquiry and 
of philosophy with great ability, but without depth. 
It discussed all the varieties of social life, and painted 
town society more vividly than has been done before 
or since ; and it was so wholly taken up with this, that 
country life and its interests, except in the writings of 
Addison, were scarcely touched by it at all. Criticism 
being so active, the for?n in which thought was ex- 
pressed was now especially dwelt on, and the result 
was that the style of English prose became for the 
first time absolutely simple and clear, and English 
verse reached a neatness of expression and a close- 
ness of thought which was as exquisite as it was 
artificial. At the same time, and for the same 
reasons. Nature, Passion, and Imagination decayed 
in poetry. 

113. Alexander Pope absorbed and reflected all 
these elements. Born in 1688, he wrote tolerable verse 
at twelve years old; the /^<2^V^r<2Zf appeared in 1709, 
and two years afterwards he took full rank as the 
critical poet in the Essay on Criticism (17 11). The 
next year saw the first cast of his Rape of the Lock, 
the most briUiant occasional poem in our language. 
This closed what we may call his first period. In 
1 7 13, when he published Windsor Forest, he became 
known to Swift and to Henry St. John, Lord Boling- 
broke. When these, with Gay, Parnell, Prior, Ar- 
buthnot, and others, formed the Scriblerus Club, Pope 
joined them, and soon rose into great fame by his 
Translation of the Iliad (1715-1720), and by the 
Translation of the Odyssey (1723-25), in which he 
was assisted by Fenton and Broome. Being now at 
ease, f )r he received more than 8,000/. for this work, 
he published from h^ retreat at Twickenham, and in 



VI.] RESTORATION TO DEATH OF POPE. 137 

bitter scorn of the poetasters and of all the petty 
scribblers who annoyed him, the Du7iciad^ 1728. 
Its original hero was Lewis Theobald, but when the 
fourth book was published, under Warburton's influ- 
ence, in 1742, Colley Gibber vvas enthroned as the 
King of Dunces instead of Theobald. The fiercest 
and finest of Pope's satires, it closes his second period 
which breathes the savageness of Swift. The third 
phase of Pope's literary life was closely linked to his 
friend Bolingbroke. It was in conversation with him 
that he originated the Essay on Man (1732-4) and the 
Imitatio7is of Horace. The Moral Essays, or Epistles 
to men and women, were written to praise those whom 
he loved, and to satirise the bad poets and the social 
follies of the day, and all who disliked him or his 
party. In the last few years of his life, Bishop War- 
burton, the writer of the Legation of Moses and editor 
of Shakspere, helped him to fit the Moral Essays into 
the plan of which the Essay on Man formed part. 
Warburton was Pope's last great friend; but almost 
his only old friend. By 1740 nearly all the members 
of his literary circle were dead, and a new race of 
poets and writers had grown up. In 1744 he died. 
The masterly form into which he threw the philosophical 
principles he condensed into didactic poetry make them 
mere impressive than they have a right to be. The 
Essay on Man, though its philosophy is poor and not 
his own, is crowded with lines that have passed into 
daily use. The Essay on Criticism is equally full of 
critical precepts put with exquisite skill. The Satires 
and Epistles are didactic, but their excellence is 
in the terse and finished types of character, in the 
almost creative drawing of which Pope remains unri- 
valled, even by Dryden. His translation of Homer 
is made with great literary art, but for that very reason 
it does not make us feel the simplicity and directness 
of Homer. It has neither the manner of Homer, nor 
the spirit of the Greek life, just as Pope's descriptions 



138 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

of nature have neither the manner nor the spirit of 
nature. The heroic couplet^ in which he wrote nearly 
all his work, he used with a correctness that has never 
been surpassed, but its smooth perfection, at length, 
wearies the ear. It wants the breaks that passion 
and imagination naturally make. Finally, he was a 
true artist, hating those who degraded his art, and at 
a time when men followed it for money, and place, 
and the applause of the club and of the town, he loved 
it faithfully to the end, for its own sake. 

114. The Minor Poets who surrounded Popj in 
the first two-thirds of his life did not approach his 
genius. Richard Blackmore endeavoured to restore 
the epic in his Prince Arthur^ 1695, and Samuel 
Garth's mock heroic poem of the Dispensary appeared 
along with John Pomfret's poems in 1699. In 170 1, 
Defoe's Trueborn Englishman defended WiUiam III. 
against those who said he was a foreigner, and Prior's 
finest ode the Carmen Seculare, took up the same cause. 
John PhiUps is known by his Miltonic burlesque of 
the Splejidid Shilli^tg^ and his Cyder was a Georgic of 
the apple. Matthew Green's Spleen and Ambrose 
Philip's Pastorals were contemporary with Pope's first 
poetry ; and Gay's Shepherd's Week, six pastorals, i7t4« 
were as lightly wrought as his Fables. The pohtical 
satires of Swift were coarse, but always hit home. Ad- 
dison celebrated the Battle of Blenheim in the Cam- 
paign, and his sweet grace is found in some devotional 
pieces ; while Prior's charming ease is best shown in 
the light narrative poetry which we may say began with 
him in the reign of WiUiam III. In Pope's later life 
an entirely new impulse came upon poetry, and 
changed it root and branch. It arose in Ramsay's 
Gentle Shepherd, 1725, and in Thomson's Seasons, 
1730, and it rang the knell of the manner and the 
spirit of the critical school. 

115. The Prose Literature of Pope's time col- 
lects itself round four great names, Swift, Defoe, 



VI.] RESTORATION TO DEATH OF POPE, 139 

Addison, and Bishop Berkeley, and they all exhibit 
those elements of the age of which I have spoken. 
Jonathan Swift was the keenest of political parti- 
zans. The Battle of the Books, or the literary fight 
about the Letters of Phalaris, and the Tale of a Tub, 
a satire on the Presbyterians and the Papists, made 
his reputation in 1704 and estabhshed him as a satirist. 
Swift left the Whig for the Tory party, and his political 
tracts brought him court favour and literary fame. 
On the fall of the Tory party, at the accession of 
George I., he retired to the Deanery of St. Patrick in 
Ireland an embittered man, and the Drapier^s Letters 
(1724) written against Wood's halfpence, gained him 
popularity in a country that he hated. In 1726, his 
inventive genius, his savage satire, and his cruel indig- 
nation with life, were all shown in Gullivers Travels. 
The voyage to Lilliput and Brobdingnag satirised the 
politics and manners of England and Europe; that 
to Laputa mocked the philosophers ; and the last, to 
the country of the Houyhnhnms, lacerated and defiled 
the whole body of humanity. No English is more 
robust than Swift's, no wit more gross, no life in 
private and public more sad and proud, no death 
more pitiable. He died in 1745 hopelessly insane. 
Daniel Defoe was almost as vigorous a political 
writer as Swift. His vein as a pamphleteer seems to 
have been inexhaustible, and the style of his tracts 
was as roughly persuasive as it was popular. Above 
all he was the journalist. His Review, published 
twice a week for a year, was wholly written by him- 
self; but he *' founded, conducted, and wrote for a 
host of other newspapers," and filled them with every 
subject of the day. His tales grew out of matters 
treaced of in his journals, and his best art lay in the 
way he built up these stories out of mere suggestions. 
*' The little art he is truly master of, said one of his 
contemporaries, is of forging a story and imposing it 
on the world for truth/'- His circumstantial inven- 



140 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

tion, combined with a style which exactly fits it by its 
simplicity, is the root of the charm of the great story 
by which he chiefly lives • in literature. Robinson 
Crusoe^ 1719? equalled Gullivei^^s Travels in truthful 
representation, and excelled them in invention. The 
story lives and charms from day to day. With his 
other tales it makes him our first true writer of fiction. 
But none of his stories are real novels ; that is, they 
have no plot to the working out of which the clia- 
racters and the events contribute. They form the 
transition however from the slight tale and the 
romance of the Ehzabethan time to the finished novel 
of Richardson and Fielding. 

116. Metaphysical Literature, which drifted 
chiefly into theology, was enriched by the work 
of Bishop Berkeley. His Minute Philosopher 
and other works questioned the real existence of 
matter, and founded on the denial of it an answer to 
the Enghsh Deists, round whom in the first half of 
the eighteenth century centred the struggle between 
the claims of natural and revealed religion. Shaftes- 
bury, Bolingbroke, and Wollaston, Tindal, Toland, and 
ColHns, on the Deists' si(^e, were opposed by Clarke, 
by Bentley, whose name is best known as the founder 
of the true school of classical criticism, by Bishop 
Butler, and by Bishop Warburton. Bishop Butler's 
acute and solid reasoning treated in his Sermons the 
subject of Morals, inquiring what was the particular 
nature of man, and hence determining the course of 
life correspondent to this nature. His Analogy oj 
Reli^ion^ Natural and Revealed^ to the Constitution and 
Course of Nature^ 1736, endeavours to make peace 
between authority and reason, and has become a 
standard book. I may mention here a social satire, 
The Fable of the Bees, by Mandeville, half poem, half 
prose dialogue, and finished in 1729. It tried to 
prove that the vices of society are the foundation 
of civilisation, and is the first of a new set of books 



VI.] RESTORATION TO DEATH OF POPE. 14I 

which marked the rise in England of the bold 
speculations on the nature and ground of society 
to which the French Revolution gave afterwards so 
great an impulse, 

117. The Periodical Essay is connected with 
the names of Joseph Addison and Sir Richard 
Steele. This gay, light, and graceful kind of Utera- 
ture, differing from such Essays as Bacon's as good 
conversation about a subject differs from a clear 
analysis of all its points, was, begun in France 
by Montaigne in 1580. Charles Cotton, a wit of 
Charles II/s time, retranslated Montaigne^s Essays^ 
and they soon found imitators in Cowley and Sir W. 
Temple. But the periodical Essay was created by Steele 
and x\ddison. It was at first published three times a 
week, then daily, and it was anonymous, and both 
thtse characters necessarily changed its form from 
that of an Essay of Montaigne. Steele began it in 
the Tatle?', 1709, and it treated of everything that was 
going on in the world. He paints as a social humourist 
the whole age of Queen Anne — ^^the political and 
literary disputes, the fine gentlemen and ladies, the 
characters of men, the humours of society, the new 
book, the new play ; we live in the very streets and 
drawing-rooms of old London. Addison soon joined 
him, first in the Tatler, afterwards in the Spectator, 
17 1 1. His work is more critical, literary, and didactic 
than his companion's. The characters he introduces, 
such as Sir Roger de Coverley, are finished studies after 
nature, and their talk is easy and dramatic. No 
humour is more fine and tender; and, like Chaucer's, 
it is never bitter. The style adds to the charm : in its 
varied cadence and subtle ease it has not been sur- 
passed within its own peculiar sphere in England ; and 
it seems to grow out of the subjects treated of. Addi- 
son's work was a great one, lightly done. The Specta- 
tor, the Guardian^ and the Freeholder^ in his hands, 
gave a better tone to manners, and hence to morals, 



142 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

and a gentler one to political and literary criticism. 
The essays published every Friday were chiefly on 
literary subjects, the Saturday essays chiefly on rehgious 
subjects. The former popularised literature, so that 
culture spread among the middle classes and crept 
down to the country ; the latter popularised religion. 
*' I have brought/' he says, " philc^sophy out of closets 
and Hbraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs 
and assemblies, at tea-tables and in coffee-houses." 



THE DRAMA FROM THE RESTORATION TO 1780. 

118. The Drama after the Restoration took the 
tone of the court both in politics and religion, but its 
partizanship decayed under William III., and died in 
the reign of Queen Anne. The court of Charles 11. , 
which the plays now wTitten represented much more 
than they did the national life, gave the drama the 
"genteel" ease and the immorality of its society, and 
encouraged it to find new impulses from the tragedy 
and comedy of Spain and of France. The French 
romances of the school of Calprenede and Scudery 
furnished plots to the play-writers. The great French 
dramatists, Corneille, Racine, and Moliere were 
translated and borrowed from again and again. The 
*' three unities" of Corneille, and rime instead of 
blank verse as the vehicle of tragedy, were adopted, but 
**the spirit of neither the serious nor the comic drama 
of France could then be transplanted into England." 

Two acting companies were formed on Charles II.'s 
return, under Thomas Killigrew and D'Avenant; 
actresses came on the stage for the first time, the 
ballet was introduced, and scenery began to be largely 
used. FJryden, whose masterly force was sure to strike 
the key-note that others followed, began his comedies 
in 1663, but soon afterwards, following Robert Boyle, 
Earl of Orrery, who was the father of the heroic drama, 
turned to tragedy in the Indian Queen, 1664. His 



^'i.] RESTORATION TO DEATH OF POPE. 143 

next play, the Indian Emperour, established for a time 
the heroic couplet as the dramatic verse. His defence 
of rime in the Essay on Dt'amatic Poesy asserted the 
originality of the English school, and denied that it 
followed the French. The masterpiece of the Conquest 
of Granada was followed by the burlesque of the Re- 
hearsal^ written by the Duke of Buckingham, in which 
the bombastic extravagance of the heroic plays was 
ridiculed. Dryden now changed his dramatic manner, 
and, following Shakspere, ^'disencumbered himself from 
rime" in his fine tragedy oi All for Love, and showed 
his power of low comedy in the Spanish Friar, After 
the Revolution, his tragedy of Don Sebastian ranks 
high, but not higher than his brilliantly-written comedy 
of Amphitryon, 1690. Dryden is the representative 
dramatist of the Restoration. Among the tragedians 
who followed his method and possessed their own, 
those most worthy of notice are Nat Lee (1650-90), 
whose Rival Queens, 1667, deserves its praise ; Thomas 
Otway, whose two pathetic tragedies, the Orphan and 
Venice Preserved, still keep the stage ; and Thomas 
Southerne whose Fatal Marriage, 1694, was revived 
by Garrick. 

It was in comedy, however, that the dramatists 
excelled, Etherege, Sedley, Mis. Behn, Lacy, and 
Shad well carry onto the Revolution that light Comedy 
of Manners which William Wycherley's (1640-17 15) 
gross vigour and natural plots lifred into an odious 
excellence in such plays as the Country Wife and the 
Plain Dealer, Three great comedians followed 
Wycherley — William Congreve (1672-1728), whose 
well-bred ease is almost as remarkable as his bril- 
liant wit; Sir John Vanbrugh (t666(?)-i726), and 
George Farquhar (1678-T707), both of whom have 
quick invention, but the gaiety and ease of Van- 
orugh is superior to that of Farquhar. The in- 
decency of all these writers is infamous, but it is 
partly forgotten in their swift and sustained vivacity. 
13 



144 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

This immorality produced Jeremy Collier's famous 
attack on the stage, 1698; and the growth of a 
higher tone in society, uniting with this attack, 
began to purify the drama, though Mrs. Centlivre's 
comedies, during the reign of Queen Anne, show 
no trace of purity. Steele, at this time, whose 
Lying Lover makes him the father of sentimental 
comedy^ wrote all his plays with a moral purpose 
Nicholas Rowe, whose melancholy tragedies "are 
occupied with themes of heroic love," is dull, but 
never gross ; while Addison's ponderous tragedy of Cato, 
17 13, praised by Voltaire as the first tragedie raison- 
nable, in its total rejection of the drama of nature 
for the classical style, " definitely marks an epoch in 
the history of English tragedy, an epoch of decay, on 
which no recovery has followed." Comedy, however, 
had still a future. The Beggars' Opera of Gay, 1728, 
revived an old form of drama in a new way. Colley 
Cibber carried on into George II. 's time the light and 
the sentimental comedy ; Fielding made the stage the 
vehicle of criticism on the follies, literature, and politics 
of his time ; and Foote and Garrick did the same kind 
of work in their farces. 

The influence of the Restoration drama continues, 
past this period, in the manner of Goldsmith and 
Sheridan who wrote between 1768 and 1778; but 
the exquisite humour of Goldsmith's Goodnatured 
Man and She Stoops to Conquer^ and the wit, almost 
as brilliant and more epigrammatic than Congreve's, 
of Sheridan's Rivals and the School for Scandal^ are 
not deformed by the indecency of the Restoration. 
Both were Irishmen, but Goldsmith has more of the 
Celtic grace and Sheridan of the Celtic wit. The 
sentimental comedy was carried on into the next age 
by Macklin, Murphy, Cumberland, the Colmans, and 
many others, but we may say that with Sheridan the 
history of the elder English Drama closes. That 
which belongs to our century is a different thing. 



VII.1 PROSE LITERATURE FROM \US TO 1-1%^. 145 



CHAPTER VII. 

PROSE LITERATURE FROM THE DEATH OF POPE AND 
OF SWIFT TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, AND FROM 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO DEATH OF SCOTT. 

1745-1832. 

Richardson's Pamela^ 1740- — Fielding's Joseph Andrews^ 
1742. — Smollett's Roderick RaJidom and Richardson's 
Clarissa Narlowe, 1748. — Fielding's To?7t Jones, 1749- — 
Johnson's Dictionary, 1755. — Sterne's Tristram Shandy, 
1759- — Hume's History of England, completed 1761 — 
Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield, 1766- — Adam Smith's 
Wealth of Nations, 1776- — Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the 
Roma7t Empire, completed 1788 — Boswell's Life of Johnson, 
1791._Burke's Writings, from 1756-1797. — Miss Austen's 
Novels, 1811-1817.— Scott's A^^z^^/j-, 18144831. 

119. Prose Literature.— The rapid increase of 
manufactures, science, and prosperity which began 
with the middle of the eighteenth century is paral- 
leled by the growth of Literature. The general causes 
of this growth were — 

ist, That a good prose style had been per- 
fected, and the method of writing being made easy, 
})roduction increased. Men were born, as it were, 
into a good school of the art of composition. 

2ndly, The long peace after the accession of the 
House of Hanover had left England at rest, and 
given it wealth. The reclaiming of waste tracts, the 
increased wealth and trade, made better communica- • 
tion necessary ; and the country was soon covered with 
a network of highways. The leisure gave time to 
men to think and write : the quicker interchange 
between the capital and the country spread over 
England the literature of the capital, and stirred men 



146 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

everywhere to express his thoughts. The coaching 
services and the post carried the new book and the 
literary criticism to the villages, and awoke the men 
of genius there, who might otherwise have been silent. 

3rdly, Tne Press sent far and wide the news of 
the day, and grew in importance till it contained the 
opinions and writings of men like Johnson. Such seed 
produced literary work in the country. JNewspapers 
now began to play a larger part in literature. They 
rose under the Commonwealth, but became important 
when the censorship which reduced them to a mere 
broadsheet of news was removed after the Revolution 
of 1688. The political sleep of the age of the two 
first Georges hindered their progress ; but in the reign 
of George III., after a struggle with which the name of 
John Wilkes and the author of the Letters of /unius are 
connected, and which lasted from 1764 to 177 1, the 
press claimed and obtained the right to criticise the 
conduct and measures of Ministers and Parliament 
and the King ; and the further right to publish and 
comment on the debates in the two Houses. 

4thly, Communication with the Continent 
had increased during the peaceable times of Walpole, 
and the wars that followed made it still easier. With 
its increase two new and great outbursts of literature 
told upon England. France sent the works of Montes- 
quieu, of Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, D'Alembert, 
and the rest of the liberal thinkers who were called 
the Encyclopsedists, to influence and quicken English 
literature on all the great subjects that belong to the 
social and political life of man. Afterwards, the fresh 
German movement, led by Lessing and others, and . 
• carried on by Goethe and Schiller, added its impulse 
to tha poetical school that arose in England along 
with the French Revolution. These were the general 
causes of the rapid growth of literature from the time 
of the death o^' Swift and Pope. 

120. Prose Literature between 1745 and the 



VII.] PROSE LITERA TURE FROM 1745 TO 1789. 147 

French Revolution may be said to be bound up with 
the Hterary lives of one man and his friends. Samuel 
Johnson, born in 1709, and whose first prose work, 
the Lije of Savage^ appeared in 1744, was the last 
representative of the literary king, who, like Dryden 
and Pope, held a court in London. Poor and 
unknown, he worked his way to fame, and his first 
poem, the London, 1738, satirized the town where 
he loved to live. He carried on the periodical 
essays in the Rambler and Idler, 1750-52, but in 
them grace and lightness, the essence of this kind 
of essay, were lost. Several other series followed 
and ceased in 1787, but the only one worth read- 
ing, for its fanciful stories and agreeable satire of 
the manners of the time, is Goldsmith's Citizen of 
the World, Driven by poverty, Johnson under- 
took a greater work ; the Dictionary of the English 
Language, 1755 — and his celebrated letter to Lord 
Chesterfield concerning its publication, gave the 
death-blow to patronage, and makes Johnson the 
first of the modern literary men who, independent 
of patrons, live by their pen and find in the public 
their only paymaster. He represents thus a new class. 
In 1759 he set on foot the Didactic Novel in Kasselas, 
and in 1781 his Lives of the Poets lifted Biography into 
a higher place in literature. But he did even more 
for literature as a converser, as the chief talker of a 
literary club, than by writing, and we know exactly 
what a power he was by the vivid Biography, the best 
in our language, which James Bos well, with fussy de- 
votedness, made of his master in 1791. Side by side 
with Johnson stands Oliver Goldsmith, whose graceful 
and pure English is a pleasant contrast to the loaded 
Latinism of Johnson's style. The Vicar of Wakefield, 
the LListory of Animated Nature are at one in charm, 
and the latter is full of that love of natural scenery, the 
sentiment of which is absent from Johnson's y^//;7/f_y 
to the Western Isles, Both these men were masters of 



148 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

Miscellaneous Literature, and in that class, I mention 
here, as belonging to the latter half of the eighteenth 
century, Edmund Burke's Vindication of Natural 
Society, a parody of Bolingbroke ; and his Inquiry into 
the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful^ 
a book which in 1757 introduced him to Johnson. 
Nor ought we to forget Sir Joshua Reynolds, another 
of Johnson's friends, who first made English Art 
literary in his Discourses o?t Fai?iting ; nor Horace 
Walpole, whose Anecdotes of Fainting, 1761, still 
please ; and whose familiar Letters, malicious, light as 
froth, but amusing, retail with liveliness all the gossip 
of the time. 

121. The Novel. — "There is more knowledge of 
the heart," said Johnson, " in one letter of Richard- 
son's than in all Tom /ones, '^ and the saying introduces 
Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding, the 
makers of the Modern Novel. Wholly distinct from 
merely narrative stories like Defoe's, the true novel is a 
story wrought round the passion of love to a tragic or 
joyous conclusion. Its form, far more flexible than 
that of the drama, admits of almost infinite develop- 
ment. The whole of human life, at any time, at any 
place in the world, is its subject, and its vast sphere 
accounts for its vast production. Pamela, 1740, ap- 
peared while Pope was yet alive, and was the first of 
Richardson's novels. Like Clarissa Harlowe, 1748, 
It was written in the form of letters. The third of these 
books was Sir Charles Graftdison. They are novels of 
Sentiment, and their purposeful morality and religion 
mark the change which had taken place in the morals 
and faith of literature since the preceding age. 

Clarissa Harlowe is a masterpiece. Richardson 
himself is mastered day by day by the passionate 
creation of his characters : and their variety and the 
variety of their passions are drawn with a slow, 
diffusive, elaborate intensity which penetrates into 
the subtlest windings of the human heart. But all 



VII. J PROSE LITER A TURE FROM 1 745 TO 1 789. 149 

the characters are grouped round and enlighten 
Clarissa, the pure and ideal star of womanhood. 
The pathos of the book, its sincerity, its minute 
reality have always, but slowly, impassioned its 
readers, and it stirred as absorbing an interest in 
France as it did in England. " Take care," ' said 
Diderot, ^' not to open these enchanting books, 
if you have any duties to fulfil." Henry Fielding 
followed Pamela with Joseph Ajidrews, 1742, and 
Clarissa with Tom Jones, 1749. At the same time, 
in 1748, appeared Tobias Smollett's first novel, 
Roderick Randoin, Both wrote many other stories, 
but in the natural growth and development of 
the story, and in the infitting of the characters and 
events towards the conclusion, Tom Jones is the 
English model of the novel. The constructive power 
of Fielding is absent from Smollett, but in mere 
inventive tale-telling and in cynical characterisation, 
he is not easily equalled. Fielding draws English life 
both in town and country with a coarse and realistic 
pencil : Smollett is led beyond the truth of nature 
into caricature. Ten years had thus sufficed to 
create a wholly new literature. 

Laurence Sterne pubUshed the first part of Tris- 
tram Shandy in the same year as Rasselas^ i759- 
Tristram Shaitdy and the Senttfnental Journey are 
scarcely novels. They have no plot, they can scarcely 
be said to have any story. The story of TiHstram 
Shandy wanders like a man in a labyrinth, and the 
humour is as labyrinthine as the story. Its humourous 
note is very remote and subtle ; and the sentiment 
is sometimes true, but mostly affected. But a certain 
unity is given to the book by the admirable consist- 
ency of the characters. A little later, in 1766, Gold- 
smith's Vicar of Wakefield was the first, and perhaps 
the most charming, of all those novels which we may 
call idyllic, which describe in a pure and gentle style 
the simple loves and lives of country people. Lastly, 



I50 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

but still in the same circle of Johnson's friends, Miss 
Barney's Evelina^ 1778, and her Cecilia^ in which we 
detect Johnson's Roman hand, were the first novels of 
society. 

122. History shared in the progress made after 1745 
in prose writing, and was raised into the rank of liter- 
ature by three of Johnson's contemporaries. All of them 
were influenced by the French school, by Montesquieu 
and Voltaire. David Hume's Hisioiy of England, 
finished in 1761, is, in the writer's endeavour to make 
it a philosophic whole, in its clearness of narrative 
and purity of style, our first literary history. But he is 
neither exact, nor does he care to be exact. He does 
not love his subject, and he wants sympathy with 
mankind and with his country. His manner is the man- 
ner of Voltaire, passionless, keen, and elegant. Dr. 
Robertson, Hume's friend, and also a Scotchman, 
was a careful and serious, but also a cold writer. His 
Histories of Scotland, of Charles V., and of America 
show how historical mterest again began to reach be- 
yond England. Their style is literary, but they fail in 
philosophical insight and in imagination. Edward 
Gibbon, whose Decline and Fall of the Ro77ian Empire, 
completed in 1788, gave a new impulse and a new 
modjl to historical literature, had no more sympathy 
with humanity than Hume, and his irony lowers through- 
out the human value of his history. But he had 
creative power, originality, and the imagination of his 
subject. It was at Rome in 1764, while musing amid 
the ruins of the Capitol, that the idea of writing his 
book started to his mind, and his conception of the 
work was that of an artist. Rome, eastern and 
western, was painted in the centre of the world, dying 
slowly like a lion. Around it and towards it he drew 
all the nations and hordes and faiths that wrought its 
ruin ; told their stories from the beginning, and the 
results on themselves and on the world of their vic- 
tories over Rome. This imaginative conception, 



VII.] PROSE LITERATURE FROM \^\^ TO 1789. 151 

together with the collecting and use of every detail of 
the arts and costumes and manners of the times he 
described, the reading and use of all the contemporary 
literature, the carefal geographical detail, the marshal- 
ling of all this information with his facts, the power 
with which he moved over this vast arena, and the use 
of a full, but too grandiose a style, to give importance 
to the subject, makes him the one historian of the 
eighteenth century, whom modern research recognises 
as its master. Only in two chapters, the famous ones 
on Christianity, out of seventy-one, and during twenty- 
three years of work, does Gibbon yield to the prejudice 
which is the common fault of historians. 

123. Philosophical and Political Literature. — 
Hume, following Locke, inquired into the nature of the 
human understanding, and based philosophy upon 
psychology. He constructed a science of man ; and 
finally limited all our knowledge of reality to the 
world of phenomena revealed to us by experience. In 
morals he made utility the only measure of virtue. 
The first of his books, the Treatise of Huma7i Nature^ 
1739, was written in France, and was followed by the 
Philosophical Essays in 1748, and by the Inquiry 
Concerning the Principles of Morals in 175 1. The 
Dialogues on Natural Religion were not published till 
after his death. These were his chief philosophical 
works. But in 1741-42, he published two volumes of 
Essiys Moral and Political, from which we might 
infer a political phdosophy ; and in 1752 the Political 
Discourses appeared, and they have been fairly said to 
be the cradle of political economy. But that subject 
was afterwards taken up by Adam Smith, a friend of 
Hume's, whose book on the Moral Sentiments, ^759) 
classes him also with the philosophers of Scotland. 
His Wealth of Nations, 1776, by its theory that labour 
is the source of wealth, and that to give the labourer 
absolute freedom to pursue his own interest in his own 
way is the best means of increasing the wealth of the 



152 ±,AGLISff LITERATURE. [chap. 

country ; by its proof that all laws made to restrain, 
or to shape, or to promote commerce, were stumbling- 
blocks in the way of the wealth of a state, he created 
the Science of Political Economy, and started the 
theory and practice of Free Trade. All the questions 
of labour and capital were now placed on a scientific 
basis, and since that time the literature of the whole 
of the subject has engaged great thinkers. As the 
immense increase of the industry, wealth, and com- 
merce of the country from 1720 to 1770 had thus 
stirred inquiry into the laws which regulate wealth, so 
now the Methodist movement, beginning in 1738, 
awoke an interest in the poor, and gave the first 
impulse to popular education. Social Reform became 
a literary subject, and fills a large space until 1832, 
when political reform brought forward new subjects, 
and the old subjects under new forms. This new 
philanthropy was stirred into further growth by the 
theories of the French Revolution, and these theories, 
taking violent effect in France, roused into opposition 
the genius of Edmund Burke. Unlike Hume, whose 
politics were elaborated in the study, Burke wrote 
his political tracts and speeches face to face with 
events and upon them. Philosophical reasoning 
and poetic passion were wedded together in them 
on the side of Conservatism, and every art of elo- 
quence was used with the mastery that imagination 
gives. In 1766 he defended Lord Rockingham's 
administration ; he was then wrongly suspected of the 
authorship of the Letters of Junius:^ political invectives 
(1769-72), whose trenchant style has preserved them 
to this day. Burke's Thoughts on the Cause of the 
p7'esent Discontents^ i773? perhaps the best of his works 
in point of style, maintained an aristocratic govern- 
ment ; and the next year appeared his famous Speech 
on American Taxation^ while that on Ame7'ican Con- 
ciliation, 1775, ^^^s answered by his friend Johnson in 
Taxation no Tyranny. The most powerful of his 



VIi.J FROSE LITERATURE FROM i-j^^^ TO i%Z'2'> 153 

works were the Refiedions on the French Revolution^ 
1790, and the Letters on a Regicide Peace (1796-97). 
The first of these, answered by Thomas Fame's Rights 
of Man ^ and by James Mackintosh's Vindicice Gallicce, 
spread over all England a terror of the principles of 
the Revolution ; the second doubled the eagerness of 
England to carry on the war with France. All his 
work is more hterature than oratory. Many of his 
speeches enthralled their hearers, but many more put 
them to sleep. The very men, however, who slept 
under him in the House read over and over again the 
same speech when published with renewed delight. 
Goldsmith's praise of him— that he ^' wound himself 
into his subject like a serpent " — gives the reason why 
he sometimes failed as an orator^ why he always 
succeeded as a writer. 

124. Prcse from 1789-1832. Miscellaneous. 
— The death of Johnson marks a true period in 
our later prose literature. London had ceased 
then to be the only literary centre. Books were 
produced in all parts of the country, and Edinburgh 
had its own famous school of literature. The doc- 
trines of the French Revolution were eagerly sup- 
ported and eagerly opposed, and stirred like leaven 
through a great part of the literary work of England. 
Later on, through Coleridge, Scott, Carlyle, and 
others, the influence of Goethe and Schiller, of the 
new literature of Germany, began to tell upon us, in 
theology, in philosophy, and even in the novel. The 
great English Journals, the Morning Chronicle^ the 
Times ^ the Morning Post^ the Morning Herald^ were 
all set on foot between 1775 and 1793, between 
the war with America and the war with France \ and 
when men like Coleridge and Canning began to write 
in them the literature of journalism was started. A 
Literature especially directed towards Education arose 
in the Cyclopcedias^ which began in 1778, and 
rapidly developed into vast Dictionaries of know- 



1 54 ENGLISH LITER A TURE, [chap. 

ledge. Along with them were the many series 
issued from Edinburgh and London of Popular 
Miscellanies. A crowd of hterary men found employ- 
ment in writing about books rather than in writing 
them, and the Luerature of Cruicism became a 
power. The Eduiburgh Review was established in 
1802, and the Quarterly ^'xts, political opponent, in 1808, 
and these were soon followed by Fraser's and Black- 
wood's Magazine. Jeffrey, Professor Wilson, Sydney 
Smith, and a host of others wrote in these on contem- 
porary events and books. Interest in contemporary 
stimulated interest in past literature, and Cole- 
ridge, Charles Lamb, Thomas Campbell, Hazhtt, 
Southey, and Savage Lander carried on that study of 
the Ehzabethan and earlier poets to which Warton 
had given so much impulse in the eighteenth century. 
Literary quarrels concerning the schools of poetry 
produced books like Coleridge's Biographia Literaria , 
and Words w^orth's Essays on his own art are in admir- 
able prose. De Quincey, one of the Edinburgh school, 
is, owing to the peculiar and involved melody of his 
style, one of our first, as he is one of our most various 
miscellaneous writers : and with him for masculine 
English, for various learning and forcible fancy, and, 
not least, for his vigorous lyrical work and poems, we 
may rank Walter Savage Landor, w4io deepened an 
interest in English and classic literature. Charles 
Lamb's fineness of perception was show^n in his criti- 
cisms on the old dramatists, but his most original work 
was the Essays of Elia, in which he renewed the lost 
grace of the essay, and with a humour not less gentle, 
but more subde than Addison's. 

125. Theological Literature had received a 
new impulse in 1738-91 from the evangeHsing work 
of John Wesley and Whitfield ; and their spiritual 
followers, John Scott, Newton, and Cecil, made by their 
writings the Evangelical school. William Paley, in 
his Evidences^ defended Christianity from the common- 



VII.] PROSE LITER A TURE FROM 1 789 TO 1832. 1 55 

sense point of view; while the sermons of Robert 
Hall and of Dr. Chalmers are, in different ways, fine 
examples of devotional and philosophical eloquence. 

126. The eloquent intelligence of Edinburgh con- 
tinued the Literature of Philosophy in the work 
of Dugald Stewart. Reid's successor, and in that of 
Dr. Browne, who for the most part opposed Hume's 
fundamental idea that Psychology is a part of the 
Science of Life. Cohridge brought his own and the 
German philosophies into the treatment of theological 
questions in the Aids to Reflection^ and into various 
subjects of life in the Friend, The utilitarian view of 
morals was put forth by Jeremy Bentham with great 
power, but his chief work was in the province of Law. 
He founded the Philosophy of Jurisprudence, he in- 
vented a scientific legal vocabulary, and we owe to 
him almost every reform that has improved our Law. 
He wrote also on political economy, but that subject 
was more fully developed by Malthus, Ricardo, and 
James Mill. 

127. Biography and travel are hnked at many 
points to history, and the literature of the former was 
enriched by Hayley's Cowper^ Southey's Life of Nelson^ 
McCrie's Life of lOiox, Moore's jJfe of Byron^ and 
Lockhart's Life of Scott, As to travel, it has rarely 
produced books which may be called literature, but 
the works of biographers and travellers have brought 
together the materials of literature. Bruce left for 
Africa in 1762, and in the next seventy years Africa, 
Egypt, Italy, Greece, the Holy Land, and the Arctic 
Regions were made the common property of literary 
men. 

128. The Historical School produced Mitford's 
History of Greece^ 1810, and Lingard's History of Eng- 
land^ 1819; but it was Henry Hallam who for the first 
time wrote history in this country without a grain of 
prejudice. His Europe during tiie Middle Ages^ 18 r 8, 
is distinguished by its exhaustive and judicial summing- 

14 



156 ENGLISH LITER A TURE, [chap. 

up of facts, and his Constitutional History of Engla?id 
set on foot a new kind of history in the best way. 
Since his time, impelled by Macaulay, Dean Milman, 
and others, history has become more and more worthy 
of the name of fine literature, and the critical schools 
of our own day, while making truth the first thing, and 
the philosophy of history the second, do not disdain 
but exact the graces of literature. But of all the 
forms of prose literature, the novel was the most 
largely used and developed. 

129. The Novel. — The stir of thought made by 
the French Revolution had many side influences on 
novel- writing. The political stories of Thomas Holcroft 
and William Godwin opened a new realm to the 
novelist. The Canterbury Tales of Sophia and 
Harriet Lee, and the wild and picturesque tales of 
Mrs. Radcliffe introduced the Romantic Novel. Mrs. 
Inchbald's Simple Story , 179^? started the novel of 
Passion, while Mrs. Opie made domestic life the 
sphere of her graceful and pathetic stories, 1806. 
Miss Edgeworth in her Irish stories gave the first 
impulse to the novel of national character, and in 
her other tales to the novel with a moral purpose, 
1801-11. Miss Austen, *' with an exquisite touch 
which renders commonplace things and characters 
interesting from truth of description and sentiment," 
produced the best novels we have of everyday society, 
1811-17. With the peace of 1815 arose new forms of 
fiction ; and travel, now popular, gave birth to the tale 
of foreign society and manners ) of these, Thomas 
Hope's Anastasius (1819) was the first. The Classical 
Novel arose in Lockhart's Valerius^ and Miss Ferrier's 
humorous tales of Scottish life were pleasant to Walter 
Scott 

It was Walter Scott, however, who raised the 
whole of the literature of the novel into one of the 
great influences that bear on human life. Men arc 
tstill alive who remember the wonder and delight with 



^11.] PROSE LITERATURE FROM 1789 TO 1832. 157 

which Waverley (1814) was welcomed. The swiftness 
of work combined with vast diligence which belongs 
to very great genius belonged to him. Guy Manncr- 
ing was written in six weeks, and the Bride of La77i- 
77iermoor^ as great in fateful pathos as Ro77ieo aTtd 
Juliet^ but more solemn, was done in a fortnight. 
There is then a. certain aba7tdo7i in his work winch 
removes it from the dignity of the ancient writers, but 
we are repaid for this loss by the intensity, and the 
animated movement, and the • inspired delight wid^i 
which he invented and wrote his stories. It is not 
composition ; it is Scott actually present in each of 
his personages, and speaking their thoughts. His 
National tales — and his own country was his best 
inspiration — are written with such love for the 
characters and the scenes, that we feel his joy 
and love underneath each of the stories as a com- 
pleting charm, as a spirit that enchants the whole. 
And in these tales his own deep kindliness, his sym- 
pathy with human nature, united, after years of enmity, 
the Highlands to the Lowlands. In the vivid por- 
traiture and dramatic reality of such tales as Old 
Mortality and Qiieiiti7i Dufivard he created the 
Historical novel. " All is great," said Goethe, speak- 
ing of one of these historical tales, " in the Waverley 
Novels ; material, effect, characters, execution." In 
truth, so natural is Scott's invention, that it seems 
creation. Everything speaks in the tale and to the 
tale, and the landscape is woven through the events 
and in harmony with them. His comprehensive 
power, which drew with the same certainty so 
many characters in so many various classes, was the 
direct result of his profound sympathy with the simpler 
feelings of the human heart, and of his pleasure in 
writing so as to make human life more beautiful and 
more good in the eyes of men. He was always ro- 
mantic, and his romance did not fail him when he 
came to be old. Like Shakspere he kept that to 



ISS ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

the very close. The later years of his life were 
dark, but the almost unrivalled nobleness of his 
battle against ill fortune prove that he was as great 
hearted as he was great. " God bless thee, Walter, 
my man," said his uncle, *^ thou hast risen to be 
great, but thou wast always good.'^ His last tale of 
power was the Fair Maid of Perth (-1828), and his last 
effort, in 183 1, was made the year before he died. 
That year, 1832, which saw the deaths of Goethe and 
Scott, is the close of an epoch in literature. 



CHAPTER VHI. 

POETRY, FROM 173O TO 1 83 2. 

Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, 1725.— Thomson's Seasons, 1730. 
—Gray ai^d Collins, Poe7n-, 1746-1757. — Goldsmith's 
Traveli'er, 1764- — Chatteitun's Poems, 1770- — Hlake's 
Po^7ns, 1777-1794.— Grbbe's Viitaoe, 1783.— Cowper's 
Ta^k, 1785. — Lurns's Jiy-st Poem^', 1786. — Campbell's 
Pleasure^ of Hope, 1799- — Wordsworth's Lm-uuI Ball<ids, 
1798, his Prelude, 1806; Excursion, 1814.— Coleridge's 
Christabel, 1805. — Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel, ^Jar- 
rnion, Lady of the 1 ake, 1805-8-10- — Byron's Poejns, lo07- 
1823.— Shelley's Poei?7s, 1813-1821.— Keats' Poc?ns, 1&17- 
1820. Tennyson's /rj^/'^^;;^^, 1830- 

130. The Elements and Forms of the New 
Poetry. — The poetry we are now to study may be 
divided into t7vo periods. The first dates from about 
the middle of Pope's life, and closes with the pub- 
lication of Cowper's Task, 17S5 ; the second begins 
with the Task and closes in 1832. The first is not 
wrongly called a time of transition. The influence 
of the poetry of the past lasted ; new elements were 
added to poetry, and new forms of it took shape. 



VIII.] POETRY, FROM 1730 TO 1832. 159 

There was a change also in the style and in the 
subject of poetry. Under these heads I shall bring 
together the various poetical works of this period. 

(i.) The influence of the didactic and satirical poetry 
of the critical school lingered among the new elements 
which I shall notice. It is found in Johnson's two 
satires on the manners of his time, the London, 1738, 
and the Vanity of Human Wishes, i749; i^^ Robert 
Blair's dull poem of The Grave, 1743; in Edward 
Young's Night Thoughts^ 1743, a poem on the immor- 
tality of the soul, and in his satires on The Universal 
Passion of Faine ; in the tame work of Richard 
Savage, Johnson's poor friend ; and in the short-lived 
but vigorous satires of Charles Churchill, who died in 
1764, twenty years after Savage. I'he Pleasures of the 
l77iaginatio7i, 1744, by Mark Akenside, belongs also in 
spirit to the time of Queen Anne, and was suggested 
by Addison's essays in the Spectator on imagination. 

( 2 . ) The stiuiy of the Greek and Latin classics revived, 
and with it a more artistic poetry. Not only correct 
form, which Pope attained, but beautiful form also 
was sought after. Men like Thomas Gray and 
William Collins strove to pour into their work that 
simplicity of beauty which the Greek poets and 
Italians like Petrarca had reached as the last result of 
genius restrained by art. Their best poems, pub- 
lished between 1746 and 1757, are exquisite examples 
of English work wrought in the spirit of the imagina- 
tive scholar and the moralist. The affectation of the 
age touches them now and again, but their manner, 
their way of blending together natural feeling and 
natural scenery, their studious care in the choice of 
words are worthy of special study. 

(3.) Tlie study of the Elizabethan and the earlier poets 
like Chaucer, and of the whole course of poetry in 
England, 7vas taken up with great interest, Shakspere 
and Chaucer had engaged both Dryden and Pope ; 
but the whole subject was now enlarged. Gray like 



j6o ENGLISH literature. [chap. 

Pope projected a history of English poetry, and his 
Ode 011 the Progress of Poesy illustrates this new 
interest. Thomas Warton wrote his History of English 
Poetry^ 1774-78, and in doing so suggested fresh mate- 
rial to the poets. They began to take delight in the 
childlikeness and naturalness of Chaucer as distin- 
guished from the artificial and critical verse of the 
school of Pope. Shakspere was studied in a more 
accurate way. Pope's, Theobald's, Sir Thomas Han- 
mer's, and Warburton's editions of Shakspere were 
succeeded by Johnson's in 1765 ; and Garrick the 
actor began the restoration of the genuine text of 
Shakspere's plays for the stage. 

Spenser formed the spirit and work of some poets, 
and T. Warton wrote an essay on the Faerie Queen. 
Wilham Shenstone's Schoolmistress^ 1742, was one of 
these Spenserian poems, and so was the Castle of 
Indolence^ 174S, by James Thomson, author of the 
Seasons. James Beattie, in the Minstrel^ i77i> ^Iso 
followed the stanza and manner of Spenser. 

(4.) A new element — interest in the romantic past — 
was added by the publication of Dr. Percy's Reliques 
. of Ancient English Poetry^ 1765. The narrative ballad 
and the narrative romance, afterwards taken up and 
perfected by Sir Walter Scott, now struck their roots 
afresh in English poetry. Men began to seek among 
the ruder times of history for wild, natural stories of 
human life ; and the pleasure in these increased and 
accompanied the growing love of lonely, even of 
savage scenery. The Ossian, 1762, of James Mac- 
pherson, which asserted itself as a translation of Gaelic 
epic poems, is an example of this new element. Still 
more remarkable in this way were the poems of 
Thomas Chatterton, the "marvellous boy," who 
died by his own hand, in 1770, at the age of seven- 
teen. He pretended to have discovered, in a muni^ 
ment room at Bristol, the Death of Sir Charles 
Bawdin^ and other poems, by an imaginary monk 



VIII.] POETRY, FROM 1730 TO 1832. i6r 

named Thomas Rowley. Written with quaint spelling, 
and with a great deal of lyrical invention, they raised 
around them a great controversy. As an instance of 
the same tendency, even before the Reliques^ we men- 
tion Gray's translations from the Norse and British 
poetry, and his poem of the Bard, in which the bards 
of Wales are celebrated. 

131. Change of Style. — We have seen how the 
natural style of the EHzabethan poets had ended by 
producing an unnatural style. In reaction from this 
the critical poets set aside natural feeling, and wrote 
according to frigid rules of art. Their style lost life 
and fire ; and losing these, lost art, which has its roots 
in emotion, and gained artifice, which has its roots 
in intellectual analysis. Unvvarmed by any natural 
feeling, it became as unnatural a style, though in a 
different way, as that of the later Elizabethan poets. 
We may sum up then the whole history of the style 
of poetry from Elizabeth to George I. — the style 
of Milton being excepted — in these words : Nature 
without A7't, and Art withoict Naiicre, had reached 
similar but not identical results in style. But in 
the process two things had been learned. First, 
that artistic rules were necessary — and secondly, that 
natural feeling was necessary, in order that poetry 
should have a style fitted to express nobly the emo- 
tions and thoughts of man. The way was therefore 
now made ready for a style in which the Art should 
itself be Nature, and it found its first absolute expres- 
sion in a few of Cowper's lyrics. His style, in such 
poems as the Lines to his Mother s Picture^ and the 
Loss of the Royal George, arises out of the simplest 
pathos, and yet is almost as pure in expression as 
Greek poetry. The work was then done ; but the 
element of fervent passion did not enter into poetry 
until 1789. 

132. Change of Subject. — Nature. — The 
Poets have always worked on two great subjects — 



i62 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

Man and Nature. Up to the age of Pope the 
subject of Man was alone treated, and we have seen 
how many phases it went through. There remained 
the subject of Nature and of man's relation to it ; 
that is, of the visible landscape, sea, and sky, and 
all that men feel in contact with them. Natural 
scenery had been hitherto only used as a background 
to the picture of human life. It now began to occupy 
a much larger space in poetry, and after a time grew 
to occupy a distinct place of its own apart from Man, 
It is the growth of this new subject which will engage 
us now. 

133. The Poetry of Natural Description. — 
We have already found traces in the poets, but chiefly 
among the Puritans, of a pleasure in rural things and 
the emotions they awakened. But Nature is only, as 
in the work of Marvell and Milton, incidentally intro- 
duced. The first poem devoted to natural description 
appeared, while Pope was yet alive, in the very midst 
of the town poetry. It was the Seasons 1726-30 ; and 
it is curious, remembering what I have said about the 
peculiar turn of the Scotch for natural description, 
that it was the work of James Thomson, a Scotch- 
man. It described the scenery and country life of 
Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. He wrote 
with 'his eye upon their scenery, and even when he 
wrote of it in his room, it was with ** a recollected 
love." The descriptions were too much like cata- 
logues, the very fault .of the previous Scotch poets, 
a-^d his style was always heavy and often cold, but he 
was the first poet who led the English people into that 
new world of nature which has enchanted us in the 
work of modern poetry, but which was entirely impos- 
sible for Pope to understand. The impulse he gave 
was soon followed. Men left the town to visit the 
country and record their feelings. William Somer- 
ville's Chase, 1735, and J<^h^ Dyer's Grongar Hill, 
1726, a description of a journey in South Wales, and 



VIII.] POETRY, FROM 1730 TO 1832. 163 

his Fleece^ i7S7, are full of country sights and scenes : 
and even Akenside mingled his spurious philosophy 
with pictures of solitary natural scenery. 

Foreign travel now enlarged the love of nature. 
Gray's letters, some of the best in the English lan- 
guage, describe natural scenery with a minuteness 
quite new in English Literature. In his poetry he 
used the description of nature as *• its most graceful 
ornament," but never made it the subject. In the 
Eltgy in a Country Churchyard^ and in the Ode on a 
Distant Pt osped of Eton College^ natural scenery is 
interwoven with reflections on human life, and used 
to point its moral. Collins observes the same method 
in his Ode on the Passions and the Ode to Evening, 
There is as yet but little love of nature for its own 
sake. A further step was made by Oliver Gold- 
smith in his Traveller, "764, a sketch of national 
manners and governments, and in his Deserted Vil- 
lage, 1770. He describes natural scenery with less 
emotion than Collins, and does not moralise it like 
Gray. The scenes he paints are pure pictures, and 
he has no personal interest in them. The next step 
was made by men like the two Wartons and by John 
Logan, 1782. Their poems do not speak of nature 
and human life, but of nature and themselves. They 
see the reflection of their own joys and sorrows in the 
woods and streams, and for the first time the pleasure 
of being alone with nature apart from men became a 
distinct element in modern poetry. In the latter 
poets it becomes one of their main subjects. These 
were the steps towards that love of nature for its own, 
sake which we shall find in the poets who followed 
Cowper. One poem of the time ahnost anticipates it. 
It is the Minstrel, 177 1, of J.ames Beattie. This 
poem represents a young poet educated almost alto^ 
gether by lonely communion with and love of nature, 
and both in the spirit and treatment of the first part of 
the story resembles very closely Wordsworth's descrip- 



i64 ENGLISH LITER A TURE [chap. 

tion of his own education by nature in the beginning 
of the Prelude, and the history of the pedler in the 
first book of the Excursion. 

13.^. Further Change of Subject. — Man. — 
During this time the interest in Mankind, that is, in 
Man independent of nation, class, and caste, which we 
have seen in prose, began to influence poetry. One 
form of it appeared in the interest the poets began to 
take in men of other nations than England ; another 
form of it — and this was increased by the Methodist 
revival — was the interest in the lives of the poor. 
Thomson speaks with sympathy of the Siberian exile 
and the Mecca pilgrim, and the Traveller of Gold- 
smith enters into foreign interests. His Deserted 
Village, Shenstone's Schoolmistress, Gray's Elegy cele- 
brate the annals of the poor. Michael Bruce in his 
Lochleven praises the *^ secret primrose path of rural 
life," and Dr. John Langhorne in his Country Jicstice 
pleads the cause of the poor and paints their sorrows. 
Connected with this new element is the simple ballad 
of simple love, such as Shenstone's yemniy Dawson^ 
Mickle's Mariner's Wife, Goldsmith's Edwin and 
Angelina, poems which started a new type of human 
poetry, afterwards worked out more completely in the 
Lyrical Ballads of Wordsworth. In a class apart I 
call attention to tlfe Song of David, a long poem 
written by Christopher Smart, a friend of Johnson's. 
It will be found in Chambers' ''Cyclopaedia of Eng- 
lish Literature." Composed for the most part in a 
madhouse, the song has a touch here and there of the 
overforcefulness and the lapsing thoughts of a half 
insane brain. But its power of metre and imagina- 
tive presentation of thoughts and things, and its 
mingling of sweet and grand religious poetry ought to 
make it better known. It is unique in style and in 
character. 

135. Scottish Poetry illustrates and anticipates 
the poetry of the poor and the ballad. We have not 



VIII.] POETRY, FROM 1730 TO 1832. 165 

..entioned it since Sir David Lyndsay, for with the 
exception of stray songs its voice was silent for a 
century and a half. It revived in Allan Ramsay, a 
friend of Pope and Gay. His light pieces of rustic 
humour were followed by the Tea Table Miscellany 
and the Ever-Green^ collections of existing Scottish 
songs mixed up with some of his own. Ramsay's 
pastoral drama of the Gentle Shephej^d^ 1725, is a 
pure, tender, and genuine picture of Scottish life and 
love among the poor and in the country. Robert 
Ferguson deserves to be named because he kindled 
the muse of Burns, and his occasional pieces, 1773, 
are chiefly concerned with the rude and humorous 
life of Edinburgh. The Ballad, always continuous in 
Scotland, took a more modern but very pathetic form 
ill such productions as Auld Robin Gray and the 
Flowers of the Forest^ a mourning for those who fell at 
Flodden Field. The peculiarities I have dwelt on 
already continue in this revival. There is the same 
nationality, the same rough wit, the same love of 
nature, but the love of colour has lessened. With 
Robert Burns poetry written in the Scotch dialect 
may be said to say its last word of genius, though it 
lingered on in James Hogg's pretty poem of Kilmeny 
in The Queen's Wake, 18 13, and continues a song- 
making existence to the present day. 

136. The Second Period of the New Poetry. 
— The new elements and the changes on which I have 
dwelt are expressed by three poets — Covvper, Crabbe, 
and Burns. But before these we must mention the 
poems of William Blake, the artist, and for three 
reasons, (i.) They represent the new elements. The 
Poetical Sketches, written in 1777, illustrate the new 
study of the EUzabethan poets. Blake imitated 
Spenser, and in his short fragment of Edward III. we 
hear again the note of Marlowe's violent imagination. 
A short poem To the Muses is a cry for the restoration 
to English poetry of the old poetic passion it had lost* 



l66 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

In some ballad poems we trace the influence repre- 
sented by Ossian and given by the publication of 
Percy's Reliqiies, (2.) We find also in his work cer- 
tain elements which belonged to the second period of 
which I shall soon speak. The love of animals is 
one. A great love of children and the poetry of 
home is another. He also anticipated in 1789 and 
1794, when his Songs of Iimoceiice and Expei'ience were 
written, the simple natural poetry of ordinary life 
which Wordsworth perfected in the Lyrical Ballads, 
1798. Further still, we find in these poems traces of 
the democratic element, of the hatred of priestcraft, 
and of the war with social wrongs which came much 
later into English poetry. We even find traces of the 
mysticism and the search after the problem of life that 
fill so much of our poetry after 1832. (3.) But that 
which is most special in Blake is his extraordinary 
reproduction of the spirit, tone, and ring of the Eliza- 
bethan songs, of the inimitable innocence and fear- 
lessness which belongs to the childhood of a new 
literature. The little poems too in the Songs of Inno- 
cence^ on infancy and first motherhood, and on subjects 
like the Lamb, are without rival in our language for 
simplicity and songful joy. The Sonos of Experience 
give the reverse side of the Songs of Jjinocence, and 
they see the evil of the world as a child with a man's 
heart would see it— with exaggerated and ghastly 
horror. Blake stands alone in our poetry, and his 
work coming where it did, between 1777 and 1794, 
makes it the more remarkable. 

137. William Cowper's first poems were the 
Olney Hymns, 1779, written along with John Newton, 
and in these the religious poetry of Charles Wesley 
was continued. The profound personal religion, 
gloomy even to insanity as it often became, which 
fills the whole of Cowper's poetry, introduced a theo- 
logical element into English poetry which continually 
increased till within the last ten years, when it has 



VIII.] POETRY, FROM 1730 TO 1832. 167 

gradually ceased. His didactic and satirical poems 
in 1782 link him backwards to the last age. His 
translation of Homer, 1791, and of shorter pieces 
from the Latin and Greek, connects him with the 
classical influence, his interest in Milton with the 
revived study of the English Poets. The playful 
and gentle vein of humour which he showed in John 
Gilpin and other poems, opened a new kind of verse 
to poets. With this kind of humour is connected a 
simple pathos of which Cowper is our greatest master. 
The Lines to Mary Unwin and to his Mothers Picture 
prove, with the work of Blake, that pure natural feel- 
ing wholly free from artifice had returned to English 
song. A new element was also introduced by him 
and Blake — the love of animals and the poetry of 
their relation to man, a vein plentifully worked by 
after poets. His greatest work was the Task, 1785. 
It is mainly a description of himself and his life in 
the country, his home, his friends, his thoughts as he 
walked, the quiet landscape of Olney, the Hfe of the 
poor people about him, mixed up with disquisitions 
on political and social subjects, and at the end, a 
prophecy of the victory of the Kingdom of God. The 
change i?i it in relation to the subject of Nature is very 
great. Cowper is the first of the poets who loves 
Nature entirely for her own sake. He paints only 
what he sees, but he paints it with the affection of a 
child for a flower and with the minute observation of 
a man. The change in relation to the subject of Man is 
equally great. The idea of Mankind as a whole which 
we have seen growing up is fully formed in Cowper's 
mind. The range of his interests is as wide as the 
world, and all men form one brotherhood. All the 
social questions of Education, Prisons, Hospitals, city 
and country life, the state of the poor and their sor- 
rows, the question of universal freedom and of slavery, 
of human wrong and oppression, of just and free 
government, of international intercourse and union, 

15 



i68. ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

and above all the entirely new question of the future 
destiny of the race as a whole, are introduced 
by Cowper into English poetry. It is a wonderful 
change ; a change so wonderful that it is Hke a new 
world. And though splendour and passion were 
added by the poets who succeeded him to the new 
poetry, yet they worked on the thoughts he had begun 
to express, and he is their forerunner. 

138. George Crabbe took up the side of the 
poetry of Man which had to do with the lives of the 
poor in the Village^ 17^3? and in the Parish Register^ 
1807. In the short tales related in these books we 
are brought face to face with the sternest pictures of 
humble life, its sacrifices, temptations, righteousness, 
love, and crimes. The prison, the workhouse, the 
hospital, and the miserable cottage are all sketched 
with a truthfulness perhaps too unrelenting, and the 
effect of this poetry in widening human sympathies 
was very great. The Borough and Tales m Verse 
followed, and finally the Tales of the Hall in 18 19. 
His work wanted the humour of Cowper, and though 
often pathetic and always forcible, was too forcible for 
pure pathos. His work on Nature is as minute and 
accurate, but as limited in range of excellence, as his 
work on Man. Robert Bloomfield, himself a poor 
shoemaker, added to this poetry of the poor. The 
Farmer's Boy, 1798, and the Rtcral Tales, are poems 
as cheerful as Grabbers were stern, and his descriptions 
of rural life are not less faithful. The kind of poetry 
thus started long continued in our verse. Wordsworth 
took it up and added to it new features, and Thomas 
Hood in short pieces like the SoJig of the Shirt gave it 
a direct bearing on social evils. 

139. One element, the passionate treatment of love, 
had been on the whole absent from our poetry since 
the Restoration. It was restored by Robert Burns. 
In his love songs we hear again, only more simply, 
more directly, the same natural music which in the age 



VIII.] POETRY, FROM 1730 TO 1832. 169 

of Elizabeth enchanted the world. It was as a love- 
poet that he began to write, and the first edition of his 
poems appeared in 1786. But he was not only the 
poet of love, but also of the new excitement about 
Man. Himself poor, he sang the poor. Neither 
poverty nor low birth made a man the worse — the 
man was ^'a man for a' that." He did the same work 
in Scotland in 1786 which Crabbe began in England 
in 1783 and Cowper in 1785, and it is worth remark- 
ing how the dates run together. As in Cowper, so 
also in Burns, the further widening of human 
sympathies is shown in the new tenderness for animals* 
The birds, sheep, cattle, and wild creatures of the 
wood and field fill as large a space in the poetry of 
Burns as in that of Wordsworth and Coleridge. He 
carried on also the Celtic elements of Scotch poetry, 
but he mingled them with others specially English. 
The rattling fun of the Jolly Beggars and of Tarn 
0' Shaiiter is united to a fifelike painting of human 
character which is peculiarly English. A large gentle- 
ness of feehng often made his wit into that true 
humour which is more English than Celtic, and the 
passionate pathos of such poems as Mary in Heavefi 
is connected with this vein of English humour. The 
special nationaHty of Scotch poetry is as strong in 
Burns as in any of his predecessors, but it is also 
mingled with a larger view of man than the merely 
national one. Nor did he fail to carry on the Scotch 
love of nature, though he shows the Enghsh influence 
in using natural description not for the love of nature 
alone, but as a background for human love. It was 
the strength of his passions and the weakness of 
his moral will which made his poetry and spoilt his 
life. 

140. The French Revolution and the Poets. 
— Certain ideas relating to Mankind considered as a 
whole had been growing up in Europe for more than 
a century, and we have seen their influence on the work 



I70 ENGLISH LITERA TVRE, [chap. 

of Cowper, Crabbe, and Burns. These ideas spoke of 
natural rights that belonged to every man, and which 
united all men to one another. All men were by right 
equal, and free, and brothers. There was therefore 
only one class, the class of Man ; only one nation, 
the nation of Man, of which all were equal citizens. 
All the old divisions therefore which wealth and rank 
and class and caste and national boundaiies had made, 
were put aside as wrong and useless. Such ideas had 
been for a long time expressed by France in her liter- 
ature. They were now waiting to be expressed in 
action, and in the overthrow of the Bastille in 1789, 
and in the proclamation of the new Constitution in 
the following year, France threw them abruptly into 
popular and political form. Immediately they became 
living powers in the world, and it is round the excite- 
ment they kindled in England that the work of the 
poets from 1790 to 1830 can best be grouped. Words- 
worth, Coleridge, and Southey accepted them with 
joy, but receded from them when they ended in the 
violence of the Reign of Terror, and in the imperial- 
ism of Napoleon. Scott turned from them with pain 
to write of the romantic past. Byron did not express 
them themselves, but he expressed the whole of 
the revolutionary spirit in its action against old 
social opinions. Shelley took them up after the 
reaction against them had begun to die away and 
re-expressed them. Two men, Rogers and Keats, 
were wholly untouched by them. One special thing 
they did for poetry. They brought back, by the 
powerful feelings they kindled in men, passion into its 
style, into all its work about Man, and through that, 
into its work about Nature. 

141. Robert Southey began his poetical life with 
the revolutionary poem of Wat Tyler. 1794; ^nd 
between 1802 and 1814 wrote Thalaba^ Madoc, The 
Cicrse of Kehama^ and Rodej'ick the Last of the Goths, 
Thalaba and Keha?na are stories of Arabian and of 



VIII.] POETRY, FROM 1730 TO 1832. 171 

Indian mythology. Full of Southey's miscellaneous 
learning, they are real poems, and have the interest of 
good narrative and the charm of musical metre, but 
the finer spirit of poetry is not in ihem. Roderick is 
the most human and therefore the most poetical. His 
Vision of Judgment^ written on the death of George III., 
and ridiculed by Byron in another Vision, proves him 
to have become a Tory of Tories. Samuel T. Cole- 
ridge could not turn round so completely, but the 
v^dld enthusiasm of his early poems was lessened when 
in 1796 he wrote the Ode to the Departing Year and 
the Ode to Fraiice. When France, however, ceasing 
to be the champion of freedom, attacked Switzerland, 
Coleridge as well as Wordsworth ceased to beheve in 
her, and fell back on the old English ideas of patriotism 
and of tranquil freedom. Still the disappointment 
was bitter, and the Ode to Dejection is instinct not 
only with his own wasted life, but with the sorrow of 
one who has had golden ideals and found them turn in 
his hands to clay. His best work is but little, but of 
Its kind it is perfect and unique. For exquisite me- 
trical movement and for imaginative phantasy, there 
is nothing in our language to be compared with 
Christabel, 1805, and Kubla Khan and the Aiicient 
Mariner^ published as one of the Lyrical Ballads in 
1798. The little poem called Love is not so good, 
but it touches with great grace that with which all 
sympathise. All that he did excellently might be 
bound up in twenty pages, but it should be bound in 
pure gold. 

142. Of all the poets misnamed Lake Poets, 
William Wordsworth was the greatest. Born in 
1770, educated on the banks of Esthwaite, he loved 
the scenery of the Lakes as a boy, Hved among it in 
his manhood, and died in 1850 at Rydal Mount, 
close to R)dal Lake. He took his degree in 1791 at 
Cambridge. The year before he had made a short 
tour on the Continent and stepped on the French 



172 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

shore at the very tinie when the whole land was *^ mad 
with joy/^ The end of 1791 saw him again in France 
and living at Orleans. He threw himself eagerly into 
the Revolution, joined the ^^ patriot side," and came 
to Paris just after the September massacre of 1792. 
Narrowly escaping the fate of his friends the Brisso- 
tins, he got home to England before the execution of 
Louis XVI. in 1793, and published his Descriptive 
Sketches. His sympathy with the French continued, 
and he took their side against his own country. He 
was poor, but his friend Raisley Calvert left him 900/. 
and enabled him to live the simple life he had now 
chosen, the life of a retired poet. At first we find 
him at Racedown, where in 1797 he made friendship 
with Coleridge, and then at Alfoxden, in Somerset, 
where he and Coleridge planned and published in 
1798 the Lyrical Ballads, After a winter in Germany 
with Coleridge, where the Prelude was begun, he took a 
small cottage at Grasmere, and there in 1805-6 finished 
the Prelude, not published till 1850. Another set of 
the Lyrical Ballads appeared in 1802, and in 18 14 
his philosophical poem the Exciirsiofi. From that 
time till his death he produced from his home at 
Rydal Mount a long succession of poems. 

143. Wordsworth and Nature — The Prelude 
is the history of Wordsworth's poetical growth from a 
child till t8o6. It reveals him as the poet of Nature 
and of Man. His view of Nature was entirely different 
from that which up to his time the poets had held. 
Wordsworth said that Nature was alive. It had, he 
thought, one living soul which, entering into flower, 
stream, or mountain, gave them each their own life. 
Between this Spirit in Nature and the Mind of Man 
there was a pre-arranged harmony which enabled 
Nature to communicate its own thoughts to Man, and 
Man to reflect upon them, until an absolute union 
between them was established. This idea made him 
the first who loved Nature with a personal love, for 



VIII.] POETRY, FROM 1730 TO 1832. 173 

she, being living, and personal, and not only his re- 
flection, was made capable of being loved as a man 
loves a woman. He could brood on her character, 
her ways, her words, her life, as he did on those of his 
wife or sister. Hence arose his minute and loving 
observation of her and his passionate description of all 
her life. This was his natural philosophy, and bound 
up as it was with the idea of God as the Thought 
which pervaded and made the world, it rose into a 
Philosophy of God and Nature and Man. But he 
had a kind of moral philosophy distinct from this, 
which was no deeper than a lofty and grave morality 
created in union with a formal Christianity. It has no 
point of union with his philosophy of Nature and 
God and Man, and is incapable of imaginative treat- 
ment. Naturally then, when it enters his poetry, it is 
dragged m, and is always prosaic. He is not the 
poet then ; he is the formalist. 

144. Wordsworth and Man. — The poet of 
Nature in this special way, Wordsworth is even 
more the Poet of Man. It is by his close and 
loving penetration into the reahties and simplicities 
of human life that he himself makes his claim on 
our reverence as a poet. We have seen the vivid 
interest that Wordsworth took in the new ideas about 
man as they were shown in the French Revolu- 
tion. But even before that he relates in the Fi-elude 
how he had been led through his love of Nature to 
honour Man. The shepherds of the Lake hills, the 
dalesmen, had been seen by him as part of the wild 
scenery in which he lived, and he mixed up their life 
with the grandeur of Nature and came to honour them 
as part of her being. The love of Nature led him 
to the love of Man. It was exactly the reverse order 
to that of the previous poets. At Cambridge, and 
afterwards in the crowd of London and in his first 
tour on the Continent, he received new impressions 
of the vast world of Man, but Nature still remained 



1 74 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

the first. It was only during his life in France and 
in the excitement of the new theories and their activity 
that he was swept away from Nature and found him- 
self thinking of Man as distinct from her and first in 
importance. But the hopes he had formed from the 
Revolution broke down. All his dreams about a new life 
of man were made vile when France gave up hberty 
for Napoleon ; and he was left without love of Nature 
or care for Man. It was then that his sister Dorothy, 
herself worthy of mention in a history of literature, led 
him back to his early love of Nature and restored 
his mind. Living quietly at Grasmere, he sought 
in the simple lives of the dalesmen round him for the 
foundations of a truer view of mankind than the 
theories of the Revolution afforded. And in thinking 
and writing of the common duties and faith, kindnesses 
and truth of lowly men, he found in Man once more 

** an object of delight, 
Of pure imagination and of love." 

With that he recovered also his interest in the larger 
movements of mankind. His love of liberty and 
hatred of oppression revived. He saw in Napoleon the 
enemy of man. A whole series of sonnets followed 
the events on the Continent. One recorded his horror 
at the attack on the Swiss, another mourned the fate 
of Venice, another the fate of Toussaint the negro 
chief; others celebrated the struggle of Hofer and the 
Tyrolese, others the struggle of Spain. Two thanks- 
giving odes rejoiced in the overthrow of the oppressor 
at Waterloo. He became conservative in his old 
age, but his interest in social and national movements 
did not decay. He wrote on Education, the Poor 
Laws, and other subjects. When almost seventy he 
took the side of the Carbonari, and sympathised 
with the Itahan struggle. He was truly a poet of 
Mankind. But his chief work was done in his own 
country and among his own folk; and he is the 



VIII,] POETRY, FROM i^iQ TO 183^. 175 

foremost singer of those who threw around the lives 
of homely men and women the glory and sweetness 
of song. He made his verse " deal boldly with sub- 
stantial things ; " his theme was " no other than the 
very heart of man ; " and his work has become what 
he desired it to be, a power like one of Nature's. He 
lies asleep now among the people he loved, in the 
green churchyard of Grasmere, by the side of the 
stream of Rothay, in a place as quiet as his life. Few 
spots on earth are more sacred than his grave. 

145. Sir Walter Scott was Wordsworth's dear 
friend, and his career as a poet began when Words- 
worth first came to Grasmere, with the Lay of the Last 
Minstrel, 1805. Marmion followed in 1808, and the 
Lady of the Lake in 18 10. These were his best 
poems ; the others, with the exception of some lyrics 
which touch the sadness and brightness of life with 
equal power, do not count in our estimate of him. 
He perfected the narrative poem. In Marmion and 
the Lady of the Lake his wonderful inventiveness in 
narration is at its height, and it is matched by the 
vividness of his natural description. No poet, and in 
this he carries on the old Scotch quality, is a finer 
colourist. Nearly all his natural description is of the 
wild scenery of the Highlands and the Lowland moor- 
land. He touched it with a pencil so light, graceful, 
and true, that the very names are made for ever 
romantic ; while his faithful love for the places he 
describes fills his poetry with the finer spirit of his 
own tender humanity. 

146. Scotland produced another poet in Thomas 
Campbell. His earliest poem, the Pleasures of LLope, 
1799, belonged in its formal rhythm and rhetoric, 
and in its artificial feehng for Nature, to the time oif 
Thomson and Gray rather than to the newer time. 
His later poems, such as Gertrude of JVy om i/fg a.nd 
O'Connor's Child, are more natural, but they are not 
nature. He will chiefly live by his lyric?. Hohen- 



1.76 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

linaen, the Battle of the Baltic, the Mariners of Eng- 
land^ are splendid specimens of the war poetry of 
England ; and the Song to the Evening Star and Lord 
Ullin's Daughter are full of tender feeling, and mark 
the influence of the more natural style that Words- 
worth had brought to perfection. 

J47. Rogers and Moore.— The Pleasures of 
Memory, 1792, and the Italy, 1812, of Samuel Rogers, 
are the work of a slow and cultivated mind, and 
contain some laboured but fine descriptions. The 
curious thing is that, living apart in a courtly region 
of culture, there is not a trace in all his work that 
Europe and England and Society had passed during 
his life through a convulsion of change. To that 
convulsion the best work of Thomas Moore, an 
Irishman, may be referred. Ireland during Moore's 
youth endeavoured to exist under the dreadful and 
wicked weight of its Penal Code. The excitement 
of the French Revolution kindled the anger of 
Ireland into the rebellion of 1798, and Moore's 
genius into writing songs to the Irish airs collected 
in 1796. The best of these have for their hidden 
Subject the struggle of Ireland against England. 
Many of them have great lyrical beauty ; they 
always have soft melody. At times they reach true 
pathos, but oftenest it is their lightly-lifted gaiety 
which is delightful, and they all have this excellence, 
that they are truly things to be sung. He sang them 
himself in society, and it is not too much to say that 
they helped by the interest they stirred to further 
Catholic Emancipation. Moore's Oriental tales in 
Lalla Rookh are chiefly flash and glitter, but they 
are pleasant reading. His vers de societe are as light 
as they are pointed, and his satirical songs and 
poetical letters, written to assist the Liberal party, 
are the cleverest of their kind that we possess. 

148. The post- Revolution Poets. — We turn 
to very difl'erent types of men when we come to 



viii.] POETRY, FROM 1730 TO 1832. 177 

Lord Byron, Shelley and Keats, whom we may call 
post-Revolution poets. 

Of the three, Lord Byron had most of the quality 
we may call force. Born in 1788, his Hours of Idleness^ 
a collection of short poems, in 1807, was mercilessly 
lashed in the Edinburgh Review, The attack only 
served to awaken his genius, and he replied with as- 
tonishing vigour in the satire of English Bards and 
Scotch Reviewers in 1809. Eastern travel gave birth 
to the first two cantos of Childe Harold^ 181 2, to the 
Giaour ^nd t\\t Bride of Abydos in 18 13, to the Cor- 
sair and Lara in 18 14. The Siege of Corinth^ 
Parisina^ the Prisoner of Chillon, Maitfred, and 
Childe Harold were finished before 1819. In 1818 
he began a new style in Beppo, which he developed 
fully in the successive issues oi Doji Juan^ 1819-1823. 
Duriag this time he pubHshed a number of dramas^ 
partly historical, as his Marino Ealiero, partly imagi- 
native, as the Cai7i. His life had been wild and use- 
less, but he died in trying to redeem it for the sake of 
the freedom of Greece. At Missolonghi he was seized 
with fever, and passed away in April, 1824. 

149. The position of Byron as a poet is a 
curious one. He is partly of the past and partly of 
the present. Something of the school of Pope clings 
to him ; yet no one so completely broke away from 
old measures and old manners to make his poetry 
individual, not imitative. At first he has no interest 
whatever in the human questions which were so 
strongly felt by Wordsworth and Shelley. His early 
vvork is chiefly narrative poetry, written that he might 
talk of himself and not of mankind. Nor has he any 
philosophy except that which centres round the pro- 
blem of his own being. Cain, the most thoughtful of 
his productions, is in reality nothing more than the 
repn^sentation of the way in which the doctrines of 
original sin and final reprobation affected his own soul. 
We feel naturally great interest m this strong person- 



178 E\GLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

ality, put before us with such obstinate power, but 
It wearies at last. Finally it wearied himself. As 
he grew in power, he escaped from his morbid self, 
and ran into the opposite extreme in Don Jican, It 
is chiefly in it that he shows the influence of the revo- 
lutionary spirit. It is written in bold revolt against all 
the conventionality of social morality and religion and 
politics. It claimed for himself and for others abso- 
lute freedom of individual act and thought in oppo- 
sition to that force of society which tends to make all 
men after one pattern. This was the best result of 
his work, though the way in which it was done can 
scarcely be approved. He escaped still more from 
his diseased self when, fully seized oi by the new spirit 
of setting men free from oppression, he sacrificed his 
life for the deliverance of Greece. 

As the poet of Nature he belongs also to the old and 
the new school. Byron's sympathy with Nature is a 
sympathy with himself reflected in her moods. But he 
also escapes from this position of the eighteenth- 
century poets, and looks on Nature as she is, apart 
from himself; and this escape is made, as in the case 
of his poetry of Man, in his later poems. Lastly, it is 
his colossal power and the ease that comes from it, in 
which he resembles Dryden, that marks him specially. 
But it is always more power of the intellect than of the 
imagination. 

150. In Percy Bysshe Shelley, on the contrary, 
the imagination is supreme and the intellect its ser- 
vant. He produced while yet a boy some worthless 
tales, but soon showed in Queen Mab, 18 13, the in- 
fluence of the revolutionary era, combined in him 
with a violent attack on the existing forms of religion. 
The poem is a poor one, but its poverty prophesies 
greatness. Its chief idea was the new one that had 
come into literature— the idea of the destined perfec- 
tion of mankind in a future golden age. One half of 
Shelley's poetry, and of his hearty was devoted to help 



VIII.] POETRY, FROM 1^0 TO iZl2. 179 

the world towards this idea, and to denounce and 
overthrow all that stood in its way. The other half 
was personal, an outpouring of himself in his seeking 
after the perfect ideal he could not find, and, sadder 
still, could not even conceive. Queen Mab is an 
example of the first, Alastor of the second. The 
hopes for man with which Quee?i Mab was written 
grew cold, he himself felt ill and looked for death ; 
the world seemed chilled to all the ideas he loved, 
and he turned from writing abput mankind to de- 
scribe in Alastor the life and wandering and death 
of a lonely poet. But the Alastor who took the poet 
away from the race was, in Shelley's own thought, 
a spirit of evil, a spirit of solitude, and his next 
poem, the Revolt of I slam ^ 181 7, unites him again 
to the interests of mankind. He wrote it with the 
hope that men were beginning to recover from the 
a])athy and despair into which the failure of the revo- 
lutionary ideas had thrown them, and to show them 
what they should strive and hope for, and destroy. But 
it is still only a martyr's hope that the poet possesses. 
The two chief characters, Laon and Cythna, die in 
their struggle against tyranny, but live again and know 
that their sacrifice will bring forth the fruit of freedom. 
The poem itself has finer passages in it than Alastor, 
but as a whole it is inferior to it. It is quite formless. 
The same year Shelley went to Italy, and renewed 
health and the climate gave him renewed power. 
Rosalind and Helen appeared, and in \Zi% Julian and 
Maddalo was written. In the second of these — a 
famihar conversation on the story of a madman in 
San Lazzaro at Venice — his poetry becomes more 
masculine, and he has for the first time won mastery 
over his art. The new life and joy he had now gained 
brought back his enthusiasm for mankind, and he 
broke out into the splendid lyric drama of Prometheus 
Unbound, Asia, at the beginning of the drama separ- 
ated from Prometheus, is the all-pervading Love which 
16 



i8o ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

in loving makes the universe of nature. When Pro- 
metheus is united to Asia, the spirit of Love in Man 
is wedded to the spirit of Love in Nature, and Good 
is all in all. The marriage of these two, and the distinct 
existence of each for that purpose, is the same idea 
as Wordsworth's differently expressed; and vShelley 
and he are the only two poets who have touched 
it philosophically, AVordsworth with most contem- 
plation, Shelley with most imagination. Prometheus 
Unbound \% the finest example we have of the working 
out in poetry of the idea of a regenerated universe, 
and the fourth act is the choral song of its 
emancipation. Then, Shelley, having expressed this 
idea with exultant imagination, turned to try his 
matured power upon other subjects. Two of these 
were neither personal nor for the sake of man. 
The first was the drama of the Cenci^ the gravest 
and noblest tragedy since Webster wrote w^hich w^e 
possess. It is as restrained in expression as the 
previous poem is exuberant : yet there is no poem 
of Shelley's in which passion and thought and 
imagery are so wrought together. The second was 
the Adonais, a lament for the death of John Keats. 
It is a poem written by one who seems a spirit 
about a spirit, and belongs in expression, thought, 
and feeling to that world above the senses in 
which Shelley habitually hved. Of all this class 
of poems, to which many of his lyrics belong, 
Epipsychidion is the most impalpable, but, to those 
who care for Shelley's ethereal world, the finest 
poem he ever wrote. Of the same class is the Witch 
of Atlas, the poem in which he has personified divine 
Imagination in her work in poetry, and all her atten- 
dants, and all her doings among men. 

Asa lyric poet, Shelley, on his own ground, is easily 
great. Some of the lyrics are purely personal ; some, 
as in the very finest, the Ode to the West Wind^ mingle 
together personal feeling and prophetic hope for Man. 



i^iiL] POETRY, FROM 1730 TO 1832. 181 

Some are lyrics of Nature ; some are dedicated to 
the rebukfc of tyranny and the cause of liberty ; others 
belong to the passion of love, and others are written 
on visions of those " shapes that haunt Thought's 
wildernesses " They form together the most sensitive, 
the most imaginative, and the most musical, but the 
least tangible lyrical poetry we possess. 

As the poet of Nature, he had the same idea as 
Wordsworth, that Nature was alive : but while Words- 
worth made the active principle which filled and made 
Nature to be Thought, Shelley made it Love. As 
each distinct thing in Nature had to Wordsworth a 
thinking spirit in it, so each thing had to Shelley a 
loving spirit in it : even the invisible spheres of vapour 
sucked by the sun from the forest pool had each their 
indwelling spirit. We feel then that Shelley, as well 
as Wordsworth, and for a similar reason, could give a 
special love to, and therefore describe vividly, each 
natural thing he saw. He wants the closeness of 
gra.sp of nature which Wordsworth and Keats had, 
but he had the power in a far greater degree than they 
of describing the cloud-scenery of the sky, and vast 
realms of landscape. He is in this, as well as in 
his eye for subtle colour, the Turner of poetry. 

Towards the end of his life his verse became 
overloaded with mystical metaphysics. What he might 
have been we cannot tell, for at the age of thirty he 
left us, drowned in the sea he loved, washed up and 
burned on the sandy spits near Pisa. His ashes lie 
beneath the walls of Rome, and Cor co7'dium, ^' Heart 
of hearts,'^ written on his tomb, well says what all who 
love poetry feel when they think of him. 

151. John Keats lies near him, cut off like him 
ere his genius ripened ; not so great, but possessing 
perhaps greater possibiUties of greatness ; not so ideal, 
but for that very reason more naturally at home with 
nature than Shelley. In one thing he was entirely 
different from Shelley — he had no care whatever for the 



lS2 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

great human questions which stirred Shelley; the pre- 
sent was entirely without interest to him. He marks 
the close of that poetic movement which the ideas of 
the Revolution in France had started in England, as 
Shelley marks the attempt to revive it. Keats, see- 
ing nothing to move him in an age which had now 
sunk into apathy on these points, went back to Greek 
and mediaeval life to find his subjects, and established, 
in doing so, that which has been called the literary 
poetry of PIngland. His first subject after some 
minor poems in 1817 was Endymion^ 1818, his last, 
Hyperion^ 1820. These, along with Lamia^ were 
poems of Greek life. Endymion has all the faults 
and all the promise of a great poet's early work, and 
no one knew its faults better than Keats, whose 
preface is a model of just self-judgment. Hypermi, 
a fragment of a tale of the overthrow of the Titans, is 
itself like a Titanic torso, and in it the faults of Endy- 
mion are repaired and its promise fulfilled. Both are 
filled with that which was deepest in the mind of 
Keats, the love of loveliness for its own sake, the 
sense of its rightful and pre-eminent power ; and in 
the singleness of w^orship which he gave to Beauty, 
Keats is especially the artist, and the true father of 
the latest modern school of poetry. Not content 
with carrying us into Greek life, he took us back 
into mediaeval romance, and in this also he started 
a new type of poetr)^ There are two poems which 
mark this revival — Isabella, and the Eve cf St. Ag?ies. 
Isabella is a version of Boccaccio's tale of the Fot of 
Basil; St, Agnes Eve is, as far as I know, invented. 
Mediaeval in subject, they are modern in manner; but 
they are, above all, of the poet himself Their magic 
is all his own. Their originality has caused much 
imitation of them, but they are too original for imita- 
tion. In smaller poems, such as the Ode to a Grecian 
Urn, the poem to Autumn, and some sonnets, he is 
perhaps at his very best. In these and in all, his 



vin.] POETRY, FROM 1730 TO 1832. 183 

painting of Nature is as close, as direct as Words- 
worth's ; less full of the imagination that links human 
thought to Nature, but more full of the imagination 
which broods upon enjoyment of beauty. His career 
was short ; he had scarcely begun to write when death 
took him away from the lovehness he loved so keenly. 
Consumption drove him to Rome, and there he died, 
save for one friend, now also dead, alone. He 
lies not far from Shelley, on ^^the slope of green 
access," near the pyramid of Caius Cestius. 

152. Modern English Poetry. — Keats marks 
the exhaustion of the impulse which began with Burns 
and Cowper. There was no longer now in England 
any large wave of public thought or feehng such as 
could awaken poetry. We have then, arising after 
his death, a number of pretty little poems, having no 
inward fire, no idea, no marked character. I'hey 
might be written by any versifier at any time, and 
express pleasant indifferent thought in pleasant verse. 
Such were Mrs. Hemans's poems, and those of L. E. L., 
and such were Tennyson^s earliest poems, in 1830. 
But with the Reform agitation, and the new religious 
agitation at Oxford, which was of the same date, a 
new excitement or a new form of the old, came on 
England, and with it a new tribe of poets arose, 
among whom we live. The elements of their poetry 
were also new, though we can trace their beginnings in 
the previous poetry. It took up the theological, scepti- 
cal, social, and political questions which disturbed 
England, It gave itself to metaphysics and to analysis 
of human character. It studied and brought to great 
excellence the idyll. It carried the love of natural 
scenery into almost every county in England, and 
described the whole land. 

Two of these men stand forth from the rest, and 
their main work lies behind us. The first of these, 
Robert Browning, whose wife will justly share his 
fame, stands quite alone. He has set himself more 



i84 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap 

than any other English poet to answer the question— 
What is the end of Hfe, and what its explanation — and 
he has answered this in a number of poems, nar- 
rative, lyric, dramatic, and ranging from the times of 
Athens through the Renaissance up to the present day. 
The principles laid down in reply are always the 
same, but their exposition is continually varied. He 
has drawn with a subtle^ strange, and minute pencil 
the characters of men and women, of an age, of 
a town, of phases of passion, even of sudden 
moments of passion; and in doing so his imagina- 
tion has wrought hand in hand with Thought which, 
inventing as it winds through its subject, has perhaps 
too much scientific pleasure in itself. Art, music> 
classical learning, the semipaganism of the Renais- 
sance, the remoter phases of early Christianity, have 
each, in specialised phases of them, been set vividly 
into poetry by his work. He has excelled, when he 
chose, in light narrative, in lyrics of love and of war. 
Natural scenery, and especially that of Italy, he 
paints with fire, but he does his best work when the 
landscape is, like his characters, a special or a strange 
one. He is an intellectual poet, but neither imagina- 
tion nor the passion of his subject fail him. 

The second of these poets is Alfred Tennyson, and 
he has for more than forty years remained at the head of 
modern poetry. All the great subjects of his time he 
has toucned poetically, and enlightened. His feeling 
for nature is accurate, loving, and of a wide range. 
His human sympathy fills as wide a field. The large 
interests of mankind, and of his own time, the lives 
of simple people, and the subtler phases of thought 
and feeling which arise in our overwrought society 
are wisely and tenderly written of in his poems. His 
drawing of distinct human cnaracters is the best we 
have in pure poetry since Chaucer wrote. He makes 
true songs ; and he has excelled all English writers in 
the pure Idyll. The Idylls of the Khig are a kind of 



VIII.] POETRY, FROM ino TO 1832. 185 

epic, and he has lately tried the drama. In lyrical 
measures, as in the form of his blank verse, he is 
as inventive as original. It is by the breadth of his 
range that he most conclusively takes the first place 
among the modern poets. 

Within the last ten years, the impulse given in '32 
has died away and the same thing which we find in the 
case of Keats has again taken place. A new class of 
literary poets has arisen, who have no care for a 
present they think dull, for religious questions to 
which they see no end. They too have gone back to 
Greek and mediaeval and old Norse life for their 
subjects. They find much of their inspiration in 
Italy and in Chaucer ; but they continue the love 
poetry and the poetry of natural description. It 
is some pity that so much of their work is apart 
from English subjects, but we need not be ungrate- 
ful enough to complain, for Tennyson has always kept 
us close to the scenery, the traditions, the daily life 
and the history of England ; and his poem, the 
drama of Harold^ 1S77, is written almost exactly 
twelve hundred years since the date of our first 
poem, Caedmon's Paraphrase. To think of one and 
then of the other, and of the great and continuous 
stream of literature that has flowed between them, 
is more than enough to make us all proud of the 
name of Englishmen. 



186 AMERICAN' LITERA TURE. [chap 



AMERICAN LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER IX. 
1647-1895. 

Section i. Success of a Literature — the Colonists — Public 
Schools. 2. Colonial Period. 3 and 4. Jonathan Edwards 
— his Influence. 5. Benjamin Franklin. 6. A Change. 
7. The Federalist. 8. Newspapers and Journalists. 9. Ear- 
ly Novelists. 10. Irving and his Friends. 11. Theological 
Opinions. 12. Historians. 13. Poetry. 14. Subjects and 
Readers. 15. Periodicals. 16. Newspapers. 17. Miscel- 
laneous Writers. 18. Political Discussions. 19. Essayists. 
20. Later Novelists. 21. Poets of the Present. 22. Novels 
and Poetry. 23. Female Writers. 24. Fiction for a Pur- 
pose. 25. Theological and Biblical Writers. 26. Church 
Histories. 27. . Jurisprudence. 28. Other Authors. 29. 
The Outlook. 

I. The Success of a Literature depends quite 
as much upon the number and intelligence of its 
readers as upon its authors. Though in theory writ- 
ten to please, it should in addition be joined with 
the useful ; and, whether in prose or poetry, ought 
to exert an influence that would make one the better 
for reading it. 

The Colonists — the germs of the American na« 
tion — brought with them, to a certain extent, the 
culture, the education, the refinement of the England 
of that day. This influence led them, even in ad- 
vance of the mother-land, to introduce public schools. 
In New England these were begun as soon as need- 
ed, and, within less than thirty years from the first 



IX.] FROM 1647 TO 1895. 187 

landing at Plymouth, they were established on a 
firm basis (1647) — the first instance in Christendom 
when the civil government put in practice the train- 
ing of an intelligent people by educating all its youth; 
the result has been a nation of readers. 

2. The Literature of the First Century of 
the colonial period was but a reflection of that of 
England ; this arose naturally from the intimate re« 
lations maintained between the colonists and the 
mother-country, and in no respect were the former 
more dependent upon the latter than in this. Though 
some books and numerous pamphlets were written 
during this period, yet scarcely a treatise, nor even 
a pamphlet, survives except as a curiosity ; they were 
elicited by local causes, and were of temporary in- 
terest, and, properly speaking, had no material influ- 
ence in moulding the characteristics of our present 
literature. 

3. We now come to Jonathan Edwards (1703 — 
1757)) the metaphysician and theologian ; the first 
American writer to attain a European reputation. 
With him properly begins American literature, as 
the influence of his writings passed over the colonial 
period into the present time. Edwards wrote a 
number of books, two of which are to-day deemed 
standard works ; the one on The Religious Affec- 
tions^ the other on the Freedom of the Will^ and 
Moral Agency, The latter, especially, has been sub- 
jected to the severest criticism by the ablest theo- 
logians and philosophers from time to time, yet in 
its main positions it still remains apparently as im- 
pregnable as ever. At thirteen Edwards entered 
Yale College. Thoughtful beyond his years, a meta- 
physician by nature, he studied and appreciated 
Locke on the Understanding. In after-years he dis- 
played in his writings a wonderful power in unravel- 
ling the mysteries of the human mind. 

4. The Influence of Edwards was clearly 



I88 AMERICAN LITERATURE. [chap. 

seen in the theological literature of the succeeding 
half-century, and in the writings of certain theolo- 
gians of New England : Drs. -Samuel Hopkins, a 
pupil of Edwards, and Nathaniel Emmons, and 
Timothy Dwight, grandson of Edwards, and Presi- 
dent of Yale College. The latter's Theology Explamed 
and Defefided was published near the end of the cen» 
tury. It was a series of popular sermons, and had 
an almost unbounded influence upon the religious 
public, who in that day read, it would seem, more 
theology in proportion than they do now. Dr. Dwight 
differed from Edwards on some points, yet in the 
main holding the same views. This work passed 
through many editions both in this country and in 
England. The writings of these men had much to 
do in shaping the theological opinions of that period. 
This branch of American literature has been always 
one of importance. 

5. Benjamin Franklin (1706 — 1790), born in 
Boston, the son of a tallow-chandler, but of limited 
means, so that at ten years of age the son was taken 
from school to aid his father in supporting the fam- 
ily, which consisted of seventeen children. Fond of 
books, the thoughtful boy even then showed that 
practical wisdom which has rendered him famous. 
He chose the printer's business, thinking it would 
give him greater facilities for reading. At fifteen he 
began writing for the New England Courant, a paper 
published by an elder brother, who treated him 
harshly; and young Franklin, at the age of seven- 
teen, selling what books he had, set out alone to seek 
his fortune. He came to Philadelphia, where he 
obtained employment as a journeyman printer, m.ean- 
time plying his pen incessantly, and always accepta- 
bly to his readers. In seven years he became the 
proprietor of a newspaper. In this he wielded a 
power in society, in politics, and in literature. 

He became a benefactor to the city of his adop 



IX.] FROM 1647 TO 1895. i8g 

tion by his efforts in founding a Public Library, Phil- 
osophical Society, and an Academy — the germ of 
the present University of Pennsylvania. He wrote 
many essays and pamphlets on various subjects, in- 
cluding scientific and moral, meanwhile publishing 
for twenty-five years Poor Richard's Almanac, In 
this he inculcated his notions of economy, which had 
a very beneficial effect upon the people. His wri- 
tings had a marked influence upon the literature of 
the times ; and, even when actively engaged in the 
public service, he always found time to do good by 
means of his pen. He was noted for his keenness of 
perception and common-sense ; his imagination was 
quick, but not extravagant ; his mental constitution 
so evenly balanced that he rarely, if ever, made a 
mistake as a diplomatist or as a statesman. 

6. A Change. — Quite a change came over the 
literature of the period between the close of the 
French War in 1763 and the beginning of the Revo- 
lution in 1775. Questions pertaining to civil liberty 
and the rights of the colonists crowded out all oth- 
ers, and the discussions on these absorbing themes 
engaged the writers, the preachers, and the orators 
of the times, and gave tone to the literature. Promi- 
nent among orators in these discussions were James 
Otis, John and Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts ; 
in New York were Alexander Hamilton and John 
Jay ; in Virginia, Patrick Henry, James Madison, 
Thomas Jefferson, and others. The numerous 
speeches and state papers, and other political wri- 
tings, of these statesmen and their compatriots, are 
among the treasures of our political history. The 
collected writings of George Washington alone 
amount to twelve large volumes; thecc consist of 
addresses, messages, and letters, all written in a con- 
cise and clear style. 

7. The Federalist. — The period from the close 
of the Revolution to the adoption of the Constitu^ 



igo AMERICAN LITERATURE. [chap. 

tion and inauguration of Washington was noted for 
the many discussions on the form of government to 
be adopted for the whole country, and for the pro- 
duction of the celebrated Essays^ now a standard 
work known as the Federalisty written by Jay, Madi- 
son, and Hamilton. These Essays had evidently a 
great effect upon the minds of the people ; a striking 
instance of elaborate thoughts and views reaching 
the common mind by first influencing the more cul- 
tured classes, and through them the people. 

8. Newspapers and Journalists. — From the 
inauguration of Washington onward was a great in- 
crease in newspapers and journalists, of whom many 
were foreigners, and the first in this country to enter 
upon journalism as a profession. Their influence in 
literature was great, and continued till after the War 
of 1812 ; soon after which period the American wri- 
ters seemed to become disenthralled, and cut them- 
selves loose from so close imitation of English models, 
and bounded forward to attain success in a field of 
their own. The time came when political questions 
were less absorbing, and the people turned their at- 
tention more to reading on other and general sub- 
jects, and writers sprang up to answer the demand. 

9. Early Novelists. — The harbinger in the field 
of romance was Charles Brockden Brown (1771 — 
1 8 10), a native of Philadelphia. His first work — • 
Wieland — was published in 1798 , this was followed 
by three others. As a writer he was graphic in style, 
not wanting in imagination ; but, perhaps owing to his 
continued ill-health, his stories leave a sombre rather 
than a cheery impression. He is said to have been 
the first American author to follow literature as a 
profession, devoting much of his time in writing for 
a periodical — The Literary Magazine — that he had 
established. 

Then comes James Fenimore Cooper (1789- 
185 1 ), a prolific writer of novels, thir<-v-four in num- 

r^' ... 



IX,] FROM lh\^ TO 1895. \ 191 

ber, besides several other works, one of which is an 
elaborate history of the United States Navy. His 
novels, except the first, Ff^ecaution^ founded on Eng- 
lish life, met with unexampled success. The Spy, his 
second, was received with marked favour both in this 
country and in England, where H was at once re- 
published ; each succeeding booiv added to his repu- 
tation. The scenes described were for the most part 
American, and the stories came home to the people. 
These books gave evidence of, an original genius, 
while their moral tone was unexceptionable. 

10. Irving and his Friends. — Washington 
Irving (1783 — 1859), a native of New York City, 
stands preeminent among American authors. Blest 
with an easy, flowing style, and having acute percep- 
tions, he was able to express his thoughts with re- 
markable clearness, and withal pervading the whole 
with a quiet humour, or, when appropriate, with a 
delicate and touching pathos. No author has had 
so genial an influence on American literature. His 
writings were numerous — the Sketch-Book, perhaps, 
the most popular— they mostly consisting of sketches 
and short stories, a humorous history of his native 
city, and biographies, ending with a Life of Wash- 
i7tgto7i — a work of love, and the crowning one of his 
life. 

Contemporary with Irving was James K. Pauld- 
ing, who for a time was associated with him in 
conducting a periodical — Salmagundi — which was 
modelled somewhat after the British Essayists. Also 
Joseph Rodman Drake (who died young), the au- 
thor of The Culprit Fay — ^' the richest creation of 
pure fancy in our literature " — and the famous lyric, 
The American Flag. With these was associated 
Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790 — 1867). They formed 
a coterie of their own, of which Halleck may be 
designated the lyric poet. 

11. Theological Opinions. — American litera- 

17 



Z92 AMERICAN LITERATURE. [chap. 

ture has always been more or less imbued with theo- 
logical opinions, and sometimes debates have been 
elicited by differences in the interpretation of the 
Bible, and in the speculations of theologians. One 
of the most noted of these controversies, and which 
lasted for years, was the conflict between the Trini- 
tarians and the Unitarians, the former usually termed 
the orthodox. The centre was in and around Bos- 
ton ; but it finally took in New England, and after- 
ward extended to New York and New Jersey. In 
this controversy the people took more than usual' 
interest, as they are accustomed in religious ques- 
tions, especially those involving vital principles. 

The first in influence among Unitarians was Wil- 
liam Ellery Channing (1780 — 1842), one of the 
most remarkable literary men of the period ; de- 
manding, by his great merits as a charming and 
vigorous writer, the respect of his opponents, and by 
his generous and noble nature the admiration and 
devoted attachment of those who knew him in social 
life. With Channing were associated x\ndrews Nor- 
ton, Professor of Sacred Literature in Harvard, and 
Henry Ware, " Hollis Professor " of Divinity in the 
same. In the orthodox behalf were found Dr. Sam- 
uel Worcester, of Salem, and Professors Leonard 
Woods and Moses Stuart, of Andover. The Uni- 
tarians established the Christian Examiner as theii 
organ, and the Trinitarians the Panoplist. The two 
periodicals were read by thousands and thousands. 
It shows the general intelligence of the people at 
large, that these learned disquisitions were so much 
read and studied. Into this earnest, but upon the 
whole courteous, controversy others were also drawn ; 
and Lyman Beecher, in the prime of his strength, 
took part ; while the outside theological world — those 
comprising the Calvinistic wing — were also drawn in, 
and Professors Archibald Alexander and Charles 
Hodge, of the Presbyterian Seminary at Princeton 



IX.] FROM 1647 TO 1895. 193 

took part. Meanwhile the ranks of the Unitarians 
were recruited by Drs. Orville Dewey, William 
H. FuRNESS, and Andrew P. Peabody. 

12. Historians. — In the department of History 
our literature is rich, and in this respect the last 
half-century has been prolific. The histories of 
William H. Prescott (1796 — 1859) and John 
LoTHROP Motley (1814 — 1877) pertain to foreign 
countries, as do in part those of Francis Parkman. 
These are all recognized as standard works. The 
first wrote the History of Ferdinand and Isabella^ 
Conquest of Mexico, Conquest of Peru^ Life of Philip 
II., and other works ; the second wrote The Pise of 
the Dutch Republic, the History of the United Nether- 
lands, and the Life of John of Barneveld j and the 
last wrote France and Fiigland in America, and Fon^ 
tiac's War. 

George Bancroft (1800 — 1891), Richard 
HiLDRETH (1807 — 1865), and George Tucker, of 
Virginia, have written histories of the United States. 
The first, in twelve volumes, including the ForiJia- 
tion of the Co7istitution, brings the history to 1787 ; 
the second brings it down to 1821, in six volumes; 
the third goes over nearly the same ground as the 
second. The histories of the United States, for the 
use of schools, are very numerous, among which 
those of LossiNG and Quackenbos hold a promi- 
nent place. Patton's Four Hicndred Years of Ameri- 
can Ilistory is designed to fill the place between the 
school histories and the more extensive ones just 
mentioned. John Gorham Palfrey has written 
a very full and complete history of New England. 
J ARED Sparks has written brief biographies of many 
prominent Americans, and also edited the writings 
of George Washington, in twelve volumes, and those 
of Benjamin Franklin in ten, and likewise the Diplo- 
matic Correspondence of the American Revolution. 

13. Poetry. — American poetry may be compared 



£94 AMERICAN LITERATURE. [chap. 

with that written in the mother-land within the last 
half-century, rather than with that of any former 
time. During this later period the more frequent 
communication between English and American au- 
thors and readers led to a literary sympathy, which 
allured the poetry of the two countries into similar 
forms of thought and choice of subjects that required 
similar treatment. 

William Cullen Bryant (1794 — 1878) in his 
poetry is an interpreter of Nature, and equally happy 
in religious sentiment and love of freedom. All that 
he has written has been with great skill and unweary- 
ing care. His short poems upon subjects drawn from 
Nature come home to the hearts of his readers. His 
life was a busy one. Precocious as a boy — for at 
the age of ten he began to write verses for a neigh- 
boring country paper — he never relaxed in his in- 
dustry as a writer and editor, both literary and polit- 
ical, and no doubt he was the happier for it. Even 
when he had passed beyond the age allotted to man. 
he translated, with a poet's grace and appreciation, 
both the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer. 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(i8o7 — 1882) 
began his literary career early, and, not trusting 
alone to the inspiration of genius, was always a 
diligent student. He deservedly acquired great 
popularity both in America and England, where his 
writings are usually republished. He wrote prose 
with as much success as poetry, though by the latter 
he is better known and appreciated. In his writings 
are found purity of sentiment, nobleness of thought, 
and a deep sympathy with humanity. His minor 
pieces have gone into almost every intelligent 
household in the land, and have had influence for 
good. Many of his poems are on American sub- 
jects; this aids in making them national, and in 
promoting a taste for a home literature. Such poems 
are an incentive to patriotism. Who does not know 



IX.] FROM 1647 TO 1895. 195 

the Psalm of Life, The Reaper and the Flowers ? or 
who has not read Evangeline^ or been fascinated with 
the peculiar rhythm of Hiawatha ? On the fiftieth 
anniversary of his graduation (1875) from Bowdoin 
College he read a strikingly beautiful poem, Mori- 
turi Salutamus, full of manly, generous feeling and 
noble thoughts. He also wrote several prose works, 
and made a translation of the Divine Comedy of 
Dante, deemed far superior to any former one. 

John Greenleaf Whitti^r (1807 — 1892) has 
been characterized as the poet of freedom and hu- 
manity, and richly deserves the compliment. Dur- 
ing the antislavery discussions, his poetry, by its 
defiant and spirited tone, exerted great influence; 
and during the Civil War his soul-stirring strains 
sounded through the land, animating the friends of 
the nation. His later poems are Tent on the Beach, 
Snow Bound, The Vision of Echard, and others. 

In this connection belong Oliver Wendell 
Holmes (1809) and James Russell Lowell (1819 — 
1891), both professors in Harvard, both filling an 
honorable place in literature ; both humorists, but 
far more ; each writing successfully both prose and 
poetry; subtile critics, genial but kindly severe; 
both interested in the Atlantic Monthly, the latter for 
a time its editor, and also of the North American Re- 
view. Holmes has written a great number of poems, 
none long, and several books in prose, as The Auto- 
crat of the Breakfast Table, The Guardian Angel, and 
others. Lowell wrote 2i Fable for Critics, The Biglow 
Papers, Among my Books, and many others. He was 
American Minister to Spain, and also to England. 

14. Subjects and Readers. — Hosts of writers, 
male and female, are now assiduously cultivating our 
field of literature, the greater number of whom draw 
their inspiration from scenes partaking of domestic 
life rather than from antiquity or classic ground, or 
from foreign lands. The majority of those who read 



196 AMERICAN LITERA TURE. [CHAP. 

the poetry and light literature of the day are not 
found so much among the highly educated, but 
among those, in this respect, the middle classes. 
Their minds have not been trained to the higher 
exertion of thought induced by laborious study ; but 
they are by no means deficient in general intelligence, 
and are thereby able to appreciate the beautiful in 
Nature or in its description. This great class find 
in genuine poetical thought, whether in the garb of 
poetry or in the form of prose, an echo to their own 
feelings and sympathies in descriptions and senti- 
ments drawn from domestic scenes, and find emo- 
tions delineated which they recognise as belonging 
to themselves. There are millions such, whose only 
mental luxury is appreciative reading. They are 
by no means confined to fiction, but are also led to 
read works of a more substantial character. 

15. Periodicals. — Our writers of fiction have 
increased greatly within the last quarter of a cen- 
tury. This class of literature has received an im- 
pulse from the establishment of periodicals — monthly 
or otherwise — of an advanced literary character ; it 
also has had influence in moulding the public taste, 
and well it may ; in them are found some of the best 
authors, American and English, side by side, engaged 
in instructing their readers. This is one of the best 
features of these literary times, that the minds of the 
reading public are thus brought in contact with the 
best thoughts of the age, properly expressed in clas- 
sic English, thus training the minds of the people 
for a still clearer appreciation of literature, and a 
higher plane of general culture. Among this class 
of writers woman sustains her part with tact, great 
zeal, and success. A graceful versifier, she writes 
the greater part of the poetry of the papers and peri- 
odicals. 

16. Newspapers. — In connection with this 
should be mentioned the literature of the newspaper, 



IX.] FROM 1647 TO 1895. 197 

aside from its merely furnishing the news of the day. 
In them are often found discussions of important 
questions relating to the improvement of society or 
its material progress. These articles are written by 
able men, and frequently in a style graceful and 
racy, and often vigorous and trenchant. Thus the 
paper becomes a power for good in diffusing knowl- 
edge, especially in the notices of books, which treat 
of so many subjects — history, travels, scientific dis- 
coveries, and the moral and industrial movements 
of the times. The majority of readers are unable to 
purchase all these books thus noticed, nor have they 
time to read them; but by this means intelligent 
men and women can obtain a fair knowledge of 
books, and of the topics of which they treat. 

17. Miscellaneous Writers. — There are a host 
of writers who treat of miscellaneous subjects, and, 
if space permitted, would deserve mention. Their 
labors are not without reward and success in their 
respective fields in promoting a high moral tone of 
culture and refinement in social life. 

18. Political Discussions. — The debates in 
Congress have had influence in moulding that por- 
tion of American literature which belongs to politics, 
as understood in the best sense; for the laws of the 
Government, and its policy at different times, have 
always interested the thinking portion of the people. 
This arises from* the nature of the case, when they, 
as voters, have to do with the government of the 
nation. 

It was a brilliant period in this field when Henry 
Clay, John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Robert 
Y. Hayne, and others, discussed questions of nation- 
al importance. These discussions have been re- 
ported, and are valuable as specimens of eloquence 
— the contrast between these great leaders is very 
characteristic. 

The Contrast. — Webster's speeches, addresses, ar- 



i^S AMERICAN LITERATURE, [chap: 

guments, and state papers, read to-day as if imbued 
with the spirit that inspired them at the moment of 
delivery — and they are almost as fresh to tjie read- 
er as they were to the hearer — they glow with the 
eloquence of thought. Henry Clay's are smooth and 
elegant, but need the grace, the animation of the 
orator, who, at the time, by his magnetism, allured 
his hearers into sympathy with himself, and com- 
pelled acquiescence in his arguments. Calhoun, 
more theoretical than practical, held his hearers by 
the fascination of easy, flowing sentences, that were 
designed to support fine-spun theories. His was the 
eloquence of metaphysics — though persuasive at the 
time, to his reader cold and plausible. 

The Antislavery Agitation poured forth a stream 
of thrilling eloquence that astonished the country. 
The pungent addresses and writings of those who 
opposed the system sounded through the land, and 
from their very earnestness compelled an audience. 

Our literature is rich in the eloquence of states- 
men and orators on almost every subject capable of 
being elucidated by the living speaker. The works 
and writings of such men and scholars as Edward 
Everett, Charles Sumner, William H. Seward, 
and many others, are a treasure of great value to the 
nation. 

19. Essayists. — We have a series of writings, 
which take the form of essays, on all subjects con- 
nected with man, and in the elucidation of Nature. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 — 1882) — author of 
several important works — may be considered the 
head of this school of writers. They have had great 
influence in directing the American mind to the 
study of man in his relations to life and social aims. 

The finished style, for the most part, of these 
writers has had a beneficial effect in improving the 
literary taste of the reading public. Emerson wrote 
Essays^ Representative Men, English Traits^ Letters and 



IX.] FROM 1647 TO 1895. igg 

Social Aims ^ and other works. In addition to his wri- 
tings he very often delivered popular lectures. In this 
respect he has had many imitators, who have lectured 
on innumerable subjects to audiences in nearly all 
portions of the Union. These have been very influ- 
ential in encouraging the formation of literary associ- 
ations in numerous villages and towns of the country. 

George William Curtis (1824 — 1892) was the 
author of The Fotiphar Papers — a satire on social life 
— and Trumps^ a novel. As editor his essays on cur- 
rent topics were very popular and instructive, while 
his criticisms were just and judicious. He is noted 
for his graceful style. Edwin Percy Whipple, in the 
main, may be termed an essayist. He also wrote 
much in review of books. Henry D. Thoreau, a re- 
cluse, who lived on a small lake near Concord, Mass., 
wrote several works. Walden is reckoned his best. 

20. Later Novelists. — Nathaniel Haw- 
thorne {1804 — 1864) holds the first place in the 
ranks of American writers of fiction. He is most 
fascinating, possessing delicacy of taste and finish 
of style, combined with an insight into the human 
mind most remarkable. He wrote many stories illus- 
trating character, the subjects being taken from New 
England life at different periods, and also others 
based on foreign topics — among these, The House 
of the Seven Gables^ TJte Sca^^let Letter^ Twice-told 
Tales ^ and others. His last work, The Marble Faun, 
is deemed by some his best. 

William Gilmore Simms (1806 — 1870), of South 
Carolina, wrote several novels, as well as poems ; but 
by no means limited to these, as he was an indefat- 
igable worker, writing for magazines, and biogra- 
phies, and histories. His chief novels are Yemassee 
and the Partisan. He also wrote a History of South 
Carolina. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe, in her Uncle To7ns 
Cabin^ occupied comparatively a new field — the anti- 



eoo AMERICAN LITER A TURE, [chap. 

slavery. It was written for a purpose, and is by far 
the most popular American novel ever published, 
judging from its immense sale. Her subsequent 
works have been superior as to their literary mer- 
its — among these are The Minister s Wooing^ Oldtawn 
Folks^ Woman in Sacred History^ We and our Neigh- 
bours^ The Foganuc People^ and others. 

21. Poets of the Present. — Among the po- 
ets of the present is Richard Henry Stoddard. 
Though engaged in business duties, he has diligent- 
ly devoted his leisure hours to poetry and general 
literature, having edited several collections of poetry. 
His pieces are generally short, The Hymn to the 
Beautiful being among the first he published. 

Edmund Clarence Stedman has written much 
lyric poetry. He wrote a social satire — The Diamond 
Wedding — Alice of Mo7imouth^ and many other pieces. 
His review of the contemporary poets of England, in 
his Victorian Poets ^ has placed him in the first rank 
of appreciative and just critics. 

The Civil War was the occasion of much song- 
writing, some of which will remain as specimens of 
spirited composition, such as Sheridan s Ride^ by T. 
Buchanan Read, and the Battle Hymn of the Re- 
public^ by Julia Ward Howe. 

Of those who have been successful in writing 
both prose and poetry in a popular manner, per- 
haps Bayard Taylor is the most striking example. 
His first book — commenced in his twentieth year — 
Views Afoot, is a graphic description of his travels 
" on foot " during two years in the countries of Eu- 
rope. To this were added some eight or nine other 
books, some of travel and others of story. He com- 
posed his poems with astonishing rapidity. He died 
while the American Minister at the court of Berlin. 

Joaquin Miller and Francis Bret HARTEhave 
sung of the wild scenes of California in its ear- 
lier days. The descriptions of the manners and 



IX.] FROM 1647 TO 1895. 201 

customs of the miners of those times have thrown 
around their writings the charm of novelty. The 
former's first efforts were the Songs of the Sierras^ 
and the Heathen Chinee of the latter had perhaps 
more readers than any other poem of the time. Both 
have written short stories successfully, and Harte 
one or two novels, as Gabriel Co7iroy^ and a drama. 
Two Men of Sandy Bar, and Condensed Novels. 

John Godfrey Saxe, as a poet, was peculiar and 
successful in travesties and witty combinations of 
thoughts and fancies, which flow spontaneously, but 
are so apt and to the point that they are appreciated 
without an effort by the reader. For this reason he 
is one of the most pleasing of our poets who have 
been characterized as humorous. 

22. Novels and Poetry. — John Hay, a native 
of Indiana, wrote Jim Bludso, describing an original 
character in an original manner ; and many other 
poems deemed equally striking. He has been com- 
plimented by having many imitators. He also wrote 
Castilian Days, a series of Spanish sketches. 
\ ■ Thomas Bailey Aldrich, for several years editor 
of the Atlantic Monthly, has won a reputation as a 
poet and novelist. From his first ballad, Baby Bell, 
and novel, Prudence Palfrey, to his latest story, The 
Old Tow7i by the Sea, is found, the same care in the 
style, and the same twinkling humor. 

JosiAH Gilbert Holland was the author of 
many novels, the scenes of which are drawn from 
American domestic life, as The Story of Sevenoaks, 
Arthur Bon7iicastle, and Nicholas Minturn. As the 
editor of an influential magazine he exerted a power, 
for in his comments on current topics he was as free 
as he was fearless. 

Edward Eggleston, a native of Indiana, has 
taken a high rank as a writer. He has the advan- 
tage of throwing an interest around a class of sub- 
jects and state of society three-fourths of a century 



202 AMERICAN LITERATURE, [chap. 

ago, on the frontier, that was unexplored. His 
Hoosier Schoolmaster and Circuit Rider attracted at- 
tention ; nor has the interest in his subsequent 
stories flagged. These novels, from the vivid pres- 
entation of their characters and the novelty of the 
scenes described, have been popular in England, and, 
it is said, with German readers. It is in the depart- 
ment of history, however, that we must look for Mr. 
Eggleston's best and most enduring contributions to 
our literature. His delineations of early life and 
manners in America are remarkable for their accu- 
racy and their charming interest. 

William Dean Howells, a native of Ohio, has 
derived many of his scenes from American life as 
found among the well-to-do and intelligent classes. 
He is remarkable for the finish of his style and its 
easy flow, and the delicate manner in which he de- 
lineates scenes that every one in the same state of 
society recognizes as true to nature. Their Wedding 
Journey^ Venetian Life, A Modern Instance, and many 
other books, are among his writings. As an editor 
he has been equally successful, while the moral tone 
of his writings is elevating. 

Two authors — Julian Hawthorne and Henry 
James, Jr. — bid fair as writers to sustain the reputa- 
tions of their fathers.. Both are careful and consci- 
entious in their works, and compose them with liter- 
ary skill. Hawthorne has written Garth and other 
stories, also Saxon Studies j and James, Watch and 
Ward, The A^nerican, The Europeans, Daisy Miller^ 
The Bostonians, and others. Both are frequent con- 
tributors to American periodicals. 

Edward Everett Hale is the author of numer- 
ous stories, marked by the excellence of their plots 
and style. A Man without a Country exerted a good 
influence in favor of the Union in the time of the 
Civil War. He also wrote Philip Nolan's Friends, 
and A New England Boyhood, 



IX.] FROM 1647 TO 1895. 203 

Thomas Wentworth Higginson has treated 
of home scenes in his Out-door Papers^ and other 
sketches. He has also written Atlantic Essays and 
a Young Folks' History of the United States. His later 
works include two or three volumes of essays on 
social and educational topics. 

Charles Dudley Warner is a remarkably pleas- 
ing writer. Like the red thread in the British naval 
cordage, an unconscious humor runs through all 
his writings ; this makes them very attractive. His 
My Summer in a Garden and Back- Log Studies were 
received with great favor. These were followed 
by others, such as sketches of travels on this con- 
tinent and in the East. He enters fully into the 
boys' life in his Being a Boy. Among his latest 
works is a collection of delightful essays entitled 
As we go. 

23. Female Writers. — Space suggests only a 
mention of the progress in poetry by a host of female 
writers, as at present the great majority of poems 
written are by women. These are found in the 
newspapers and periodicals, and we hail them as 
harbingers of a bright future. Women also furnish, 
almost without number, short and graceful stories, 
the moral influence of w^hich is excellent. This is 
their field ; that of history has been occupied, if not 
quite exhausted ; the scientific appropriately belongs 
to those who have qualified themselves by the labori- 
ous study of years. Woman may revel occasionally 
in theoretical speculations, but to her sympathetic 
nature and quick perceptions properly belong the 
delineations of character as found in domestic and 
social life ; and here she has an opportunity of doing 
good, and by her influence raising the standard of 
correct thought and literary excellence. 

Mrs. Adeline D. T. Whitney is happy in delin- 
eating girlhood, as in her Leslie Goldthwaiie. This 
has been followed by other stories in the same strain, 
18 



204 AMERICAN LITERA TURE. [cHAP. 

and all of a high moral tone, such as Heal Folks^ 
Faith Gartnefs Girlhood, and Sights and Insights, 

Louisa May Alcott as an author of juvenile 
books was remarkably popular and successful. While 
perfectly at home in this class of writing, there seemed 
to be lurking in her mind a power that might one day 
assert itself still more. Her Little Women was by no 
means confined in its great popularity to juveniles. 

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward stands forth 
alone, displaying an unusual power. She has pub- 
lished a number of books, all stamped with an origi- 
nality of thought and forms of expression ; among 
these The Gates Ajar attracted at one time much at- 
tention ; but by far her most powerful story is AviSy 
describing the struggles of a noble woman. 

Mrs. Harriet Prescott Spofford is the author 
of several novels of high character on account of the 
style in which they are written, such as Sir Rohan's 
Ghost and New England Legends. 

Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote the 
story That Lass o' Lowrie's. Though having written 
previously a number of short and pleasant stories, 
this book attracted unusual attention as an earnest 
of what the author could do. Her recent stories are 
The Haworths and Little Sai?tt Elizabeth. 

24. Fiction for a Purpose. — There is another 
branch of literature worthy of notice, not only for its 
excellence in its sphere, but for its good moral influ- 
ence — that of books in the form of fiction to incul- 
cate proper religious sentiment ; among these writers 
Edward Payson Roe is prominent, whose various 
novels have attained a decided popularity. He has 
written B anglers Bu7^ned Away, The Knight of the Nine- 
teenth Century, Without a Home, and many others. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss, with pure Christian 
love, cultivated this field for a number of years, and 
led many " stepping heavenward." She was the au- 
thor of numerous books for children and youth, and 



DC.] FROM 1647 TO 1895. aoj 

others of a more advanced grade. Stepping Heaven- 
ward has been her most useful book, having great 
popularity both in this country and in England. 
Having been translated into German and French, it 
is read much upon the Contment. 

The sisters Susan and Anna Warner have also 
labored successfully. Commencing with The Wide^ 
Wide Worlds they have continued to write many 
others. 

Nor should we neglect to notice the literature 
that has grown up wirhin the last third of a century, 
among all denominations of Christians, known as 
Sunday -school^ and the continuation of the same in 
moral stories for youth more advanced. 

25. Theological and Biblical Writers. — In 
theology and Biblical learning American scholars 
have taken a high position. Professor Charles 
Hodge, of the Presbyterian Seminary at Princeton, 
published the Systematic Theology — the labor of half 
a century — a work matured and sent forth without 
an equal. 

Professor Edward Robinson, of the Union The- 
ological Seminary, New York City, published the 
Biblical Researches^ the result of two personal visits 
to the Holy Land, and an examination, more thor- 
ough than ever before, of its antiquities, and of the 
places mentioned in the Bible. This became at 
once a standard work. It turned the attention of 
the religious world still more to the subjects of Bibli- 
cal interpretation. 

In this department Professor Addison Alexan^ 
DER, of Princeton, stands among the first. Rev 
Albert Barnes also wrote expositions on many 
books of the Scriptures, especially designed to aid 
those instructing others. Dr. Phillip Schaff has 
accomplished much for the cause in editing Lange's 
Cominentary on the whole Bible. Professor W. G. T. 
Shedd wrote a History of Christian Doctrine, 



206 AMERICAN LITERATURE, [crtAE 

In other departments collateral with Biblical 
learning, Professor Tayler Lewis, of Union Col- 
lege, wrote Science and the Bible ; President James 
McCosH, of Princeton, has written The Laws of 
Discursive Thought and Christianity and Positivism ; 
President Mark Hopkins, of Williams, Evidences 
of Christianity and The Law of Love ; President 
Francis Wayland, of Brown University, wrote 
Moral Science ; Dr. William R. Alger wrote the 
History of the Doctrine of the Future Life ; Dr. 
Andrew P. Peabody, on Christianity and Science ; 
Professor Thomas C. Upham, of Bowdoin, published 
the Elements of Mental Philosophy ; and President 
Noah Porter, of Yale, an elaborate work on The 
ILuinan LntellecL 

26. Church Histories. — Dr. Abel Stevens has 
written a full History of the Methodist Church ; Pro- 
fessor Charles Hodge and Dr. E. H. Gillett a 
History of the Presbyterian. Churchy the latter also 
wrote a standard work on the LJfe a?id Times of John 
Huss J Dr. Henry M. Dexter has written the His- 
tory of Congregationalism; Rev. Dr. Perry, Bishop 
of Iowa, a History of the Episcopalians ; and Dr. Rob- 
ert Baird, Religio7t in America. 

27. Jurisprudence. — Chancellor James Kent 
wrote Commentaries on American Law ; Justice Joseph 
Story, on the Co7tstitution of the United States ; Pro- 
fessor Henry Wheaton, on Lnternational Law ; ex- 
President Theodore D. Woolsey has also written 
0:1 Inter7iational Law. These works are all standard 
on the subjects of which they treat. 

28. Other Authors. — Edgar Allan Poe 
holds a peculiar place in our literature. A man of 
melancholy temperament, and leading a sad and 
wayward life, yet his poetry was so original in its 
construction, and so melodious in its rhythm, as to 
induce many in that respect to imitate him. He 
is best known by his poem The Raven, Richard 



IX.) FROM 1647 TO 1895. 207 

H. Dana wrote both poetry and prose; of the for- 
mer, The Buccaneer is deemed his best, Nathaniel 
Parker Willis wrote a number of poems on scrip- 
tural subjects; these are deemed by many the best 
he has written. Paul H. Hayne, of Georgia, and 
Henry Timrod, of South Carolina, are noted — the 
former as a sonneteer, the latter for his war-songSo 
George Ticknor wrote a standard work on Span- 
ish literature, and biographies. George S. Hil- 
lard is noted for the refined taste, purity of style, 
and high-toned m^oral sentiment in his writings which 
, onsist mainly of orations, discourses, or essays. 

In every department of knowledge we have 
the writings of numerous authors of ability and 
discmction. Among the best general works on 
scientific subjects are those of Joseph Henry, of 
the Smithsonian Institution, John W. Draper, 
Louis Agassiz, Noah Porter, Edward L. You- 
MANS, President Jordan, of the Leland Stanford 
Jr. University, and Spencer F. Baird ; among 
those on philology are the works of William 
DwiGHT Whitney, George P. Marsh, and S. S. 
Halderman. Among the foremost writers on 
political economy we may mention Dr. Francis 
Wayland, Henry C. Carey, Professor Perry, of 
Williams College, Richard T. Ely, of Johns Hop- 
kins University, Theodore Dwight Woolsey, 
W. G. Sumner, and Edward Atkinson; among 
the writers on geography and geology are Arnold 
GuYOT, Matthew F. Maury, Edward Hitch- 
cock, James Dwight Dana, Alexander Win- 
CHELL, John S. Newberry, N. S. Shaler, and 
Joseph Le Conte. Asa Gray and Joseph Tor- 
REY have written on botany, and Simon New- 
comb, Henry W. Warren, and O. M. Mitcheh 
on astronomy. 



208 AMERICAN LITERA TURE, [chap. 



CHAPTER X. 
1647-1895. 

Section 29. F. M. Crawford — his Education — Experience in 
India — his Success. 30. Lewis Wallace — his Books, Ben- 
Hur and Prince of India — Will Carleton — the Flavor of his 
Writings. 31, 32. Philosophy, Psychology, and Biblical 
Theology — Names of Authors : Professors McCosh — Ladd — 
Shields — Peabody — Fisher — Schaff — Shedd — Vincent — 
Briggs. 33. Creole Folklore : G. W. Cable — Grace E. King. 
34. Two Virginians — Mrs. Chanler — Miss Magruder. 35. 
Dialects and Illiteracy — Intelligent Ancestors —The Spirit 
of Slavery on Education — W. G. Simms, 36, 37. Miss 
Baylor's Writings — Miss McClelland's — Miss Murfree's 
Vivid Description of Natural Scenery — Professor Johnston 
— his Sketches of *' Crackers." 38, 39. Negro Folklore — its 
Peculiarities illustrated by Page and Harris — the Outlook. 

29. Francis Marion Crawford was born in 
Italy, in 1854, of American parents, his father 
being Thomas Crawford, the well-known sculptor. 
It is the privilege of only a few to receive as com- 
plete a classical and general education as did Mr. 
Crawford. He obtained it under favorable condi- 
tions in his preparatory and collegiate course in 
the United States, and also in a university in Eng- 
land. Thence he went to India, to study its people 
and the mysteries of their religion and philosophy; 
the outcome was his first book, Mr. Isaacs. In 
this he delineated a peculiar phase of the singular 
society in that country. His first effort was very 
favorably received by the English-speaking public 
everywhere. Afterward, in nearly the same line, 
though the scene was laid in ancient times, was 



X.] FROM le^'j TO 1895 209 

written, but much more elaborately, the story of 
Zoroaster. In due time appeared Dr, Claudius^ and 
other volumes, to be followed by Pietro Ghisleri 
and Katherine Lauderdale, 

30. I.EWIS Wallace, a soldier, lawyer, and dip- 
lomatist, was born in the State of Indiana, in 1827. 
He first became known as an author by A Fair 
God, The scene of the story was laid in Mexico, 
and the effort was not specially successful. He 
afterward wrote Ben-Hur^ a Tale of the Christy which 
was remarkably popular. The opening chapter is 
one of the most striking in the language, and the 
entire volume is replete with scenes graphically de- 
picted. Mr. Wallace was American Minister at Con- 
stantinople (188 1 — 1885). In 1893 was published his 
Prince of Ifidia, perhaps the outgrowth of study while 
a:t the court of the Sultan. The Prince of India 
has numerous vivid scenes drawn incidentally from 
the history of early Christian times, as it is a phase 
of the imaginary life of the Wandering Jew. 

William M. — but known to the reader as sim- 
ply Will — Carleton was born in Michigan, in 
1845. His poems on domestic hfe in descriptions 
are graphic and true to Nature for illustration in 
Betsey and I are out. The same characteristics be- 
long to his Far7n Ballads^ and even to his City 
Legends, There is a refreshing flavor about his 
writings, and though the reader may not be indi- 
vidually familiar with such scenes, yet there is 
something in them so real that they are accepted 
as true and read with a zest. 

31. Philosophy, Psychology, and Biblical 
. Theology.— Within recent years these respective 

fields of thought have been cultivated assiduously 
by a number of authors whose writings, because 
of their merits, have become standard. 

Ex-President James McCosh, of Princeton Uni-' 



210 AMERICAN LITERATURE, [chap. 

vcrsity, wrote First and Funda^nental Truths, Psy- 
chology (2 vols.) — the cognitive and motive powers, 
The Emotions^ Our Moral Nature^ The Method of 
Divine Government, The Religious Aspect of Evolu- 
tion, Realistic Philosophy (2 vols.). 

Professor George Trumbull Ladd, of Yale 
University, wrote an Introduction to Philosophy, Ele- 
ments of Physiological Psychology, The Doctrine of 
Sacred Scripture, Psychology — descriptive and ex- 
planatory. 

Professor Charles W. Shields, of Princeton 
University, is the author of Philosophia Ultima, or 
Science of the Sciences (2 vols.). Religion and Science 
in their Relations to Philosophy. To these may be 
added an admirable treatise entitled Christianity 
and Science, by the late Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, 
professor in Harvard University. 

Professor George Park Fisher, of Yale Uni- 
versity, wrote The Nature and Method of Revelatiofi, 
History of the Christian Church, The Grounds of 
Theistic and Christian Belief, The Beginnings of 
Christianity, SupernatiLral Origin of Christianity, Out- 
lines of Universal History (2 vols.). 

32. The late Professor Philip Schaff, of Union 
Theological Seminary, New York, though a native 
of Switzerland, has long been an American by adop- 
tion. Among other books he wrote a History of the 
Christian Church, Apostolic Christianity, A. D. i-ioo j 
Christ and Christianity, or Creeds and Confessions, 
Theological Propcedeutic, an introduction to the study 
of theology (1893). 

Professor William G. T. Shedd, of the Union 
Theological Seminary, is the author of Dogmatic 
Theology (2 vols.), Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy, A 
Treatise on Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, The 
Doctrine of Endless Punishment, Calvinism, Pure and 
Mixed, 

Professor Marvin R. Vincent, of the Union 



X.] FROM 1647 TO 1895. 211 

Theological Seminary, is the author of Word Studies 
in the New Testament (3 vols.), Gates into the Psalm 
Country^ Faith and Character. 

Professor Charles A. Briggs, of the Union 
Theological Seminary, wrote The Higher Criticism 
of the Hexateuch, American Fresbyterianism^ Biblical 
Study, Messianic Frophecy, The Frediction of the 
Fulfilment of Redemption through the Messiah^ The 
Authority of Holy Scripture, 

ZZ' Creole Folklore. — George Washington 
Cable — his father a Virginian and his mother a 
native of New England — spent nearly all his early 
manhood in the city of New Orleans. Naturally 
a close observer, he became familiar with the pe- 
culiar customs and language of that portion of the 
population known as French *^ Creole. " He com- 
menced his literary career by publishing a series 
of short stories descriptive of that class. These 
he afterward published in a collected form under 
the title of Old Creole Days, At this time, he was 
engaged in mercantile affairs, but meanwhile was 
an indefatigable student of the classics, of mathe- 
matics, and of Bible history and truths. His short 
stories, made the more interesting by interspersed 
phrases of the peculiar dialect of this class, at- 
tracted much attention, and prepared the reading 
public to receive very cordially his first complete 
work, The Grandissimes. This was followed by the 
story of Madame Delphine, which has been de- 
scribed as "pathetic, and almost tragic." In Dr, 
Sevier, he treats of social life in New Orleans be- 
fore and during the Civil War ; then, afterward, of 
that sad episode in American history. The Acadians 
of Louisiana (see Four Hundred Years of AmeiHcan 
History, pp. 287-292), and Strange True Stories of 
Louisiana. His delineations are so true to nature 
that the reader is unconsciously allured into sym- 
pathy with his characters. 



212 AMERICAN LITERATURE, [CHAP; 

Miss Grace Elizabeth King is a native of 
New Orleans. Her education was obtained chiefly 
in the schools for young ladies in that city, but it 
was specially superintended by her father, a gen- 
tleman of culture and an eminent member of the 
bar of Louisiana. She wrote for her own amuse- 
ment, her first book being Monsieur Motte. In 
this story was portrayed in graphic language an 
incident of the self-denying care of a negress for a 
white child, an orphan and destitute. The manu- 
script of this story happened to be read by literary 
friends, who appreciated its worth, and through 
such mfluence it was published, and was received 
most cordially by the reading public. This appro- 
bation encouraged further illustration of the gen- 
eral theme in her third story, Madame Lauveilliere. 
These delineations show that the writer under- 
stands her subjects and is able to describe them 
vividly. These characteristics of a portion of the 
population of her native city were a revelation to 
the outside public, and took by surprise multi- 
tudes of readers. Her graceful style charmed 
them, while the presentation of her themes was 
with great clearness, and often interspersed with a 
pleasing humor. 

34. Two Virginians. — Mrs. Chanler (^/(? 
Amelie Rives) is a native of Richmond, Virginia. 
She belongs to a family noted in literary and po- 
litical circles, being a granddaughter of United 
States Senator William C. Rives, who was also a 
journalist. Her education was desultory rather 
than systematic; this circumstance may account 
for the weirdness of some of her writings. Her 
first published effort, A Brother to Dragons^ 
which at once attracted much attention, is of 
this character. Among other stories she has 
written are Virginia of Virginia^ Herod and Mart- 
amne, and Tanis the Sang- Digger, She appears 



X.] FROM 1647 TO 1895. 213 

to think out her subject, and then in a remark- 
ably rapid manner commits her thoughts to writ- 
ing. 

Another native of Virginia, Miss Julia Magru- 
DER, deserves notice. She is known to the literary 
world by her production, Across the Chasm. This 
is a delineation of certain traits of character which 
are found when contrasting types of society South 
and North. One of her latest books is The Mag- 
nificent Plebeian, Miss Magruder appears to be 
well acquainted with society as seen in the cities 
of Baltimore and Washington, in which by turns 
she has been a temporary resident for a number of 
years, though her home is near Winchester, in her 
native State. There is a pleasant vein of humor 
running through her writings that aids in makmg 
them attractive. 

35. Dialects and Illiteracy. — We now notice 
conditions that in a certain portion of the Union 
have given rise to a peculiar phase of our litera- 
ture. We allude to the mountainous regions of 
Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. 
It is a sad reflection that so much illiteracy 
abounds among the descendants of the original 
colonists who founded settlements amid the beauti- 
ful mountains and in the pleasant valleys of this 
region. The ancestors of these people were for the 
most part of Scotch-Irish origin ; this fact is de- 
tected in the names of their descendants. In re- 
spect to religious belief they were nearly all Pres- 
byterians. More than one hundred and twenty 
years ago these "plain people " were so intelligent 
as to choose as their representatives the statesmen, 
who met in May, 1775, i^ ^^e famous Mecklenburg 
Convention, and, there proclaiming their independ- 
ence, repudiated their allegiance to the British 
crown. 

Soon after we became a nation the slavehold-. 



214 AMERICAN LITERATURE. [chap. 

ing element in the South received a new accession 
of strength through the invention of the cotton- 
gin. Great cotton plantations were established in 
the valleys and plains, gradually occupying all the 
more fertile regions, and obliging the smaller land- 
holders who cultivated their own farms to sell out 
and find new homes among the comparatively 
barren hills and mountains. For more than three 
generations none of these unfortunate people, stig- 
matized as "crackers," '* tarheels," "white trash," 
or " poor whites," were sent to Congress or to the 
Legislatures of their respective States; and, as no 
provision was made for the education of all the 
children by means of public schools, illiteracy and 
ignorance increased among them, and their lan- 
guage degenerated into a dialect. Had there been 
a general system of free schools in these regions, 
the language of the public-school book, of the 
newspaper, of the pulpit, or of the lecture-platform 
would have been everywhere the same, and dia- 
lects would have been unknown. Outside the for- 
eign element, dialects henceforth cannot increase 
in the United States, since all the youth will be 
taught the same language in the public schools. 
There is a reason for dialects among the Creoles 
of Louisiana and among the freedmen, but no ex- 
cuse whatever for those in the regions just noted, 
except the unpardonable neglect of the former 
rulers in these States to make adequate provision 
for the education of all the people. It will take 
at least two generations of general instruction and 
public schools to eliminate the evil. 

William Gilmore Simms in substance once 
said': " Under a slaveholding aristocracy there 
cannot be a Southern literature. We hope, and in 
due time expect, our literature to be American — 
national, not sectional." It appears that the latter 
phase of the subject has already made progress 



X.] FROM 1647 TO 1895. 215 

toward such realization, for since the extinction of 
slavery an unusual number of both se::es south of 
the line of Mason and Dixon have come to the 
front. It is still more cheering that they have 
been hailed with unfeigned pleasure by intellig?iit 
readers throughout the Union. The number of 
these writers, thus far, has been about equally di- 
vided between the sexes. 

36. Miss Frances Courtney Baylor, though 
a native of Arkansas, and for a short time a resi- 
dent of Texas, is virtually a Virginian, since in the 
latter State her family in its social standing was 
one of note. After the close of the Civil War she 
visited Europe, and spent some years chiefly in 
England, then returned to the United States, and 
made her home in the beautiful valley of the Shenan- 
doah, in the vicinity of Winchester. Here appeared 
her first book, On Both Sides^ the main point of 
which was the contrast in the experiences of a com- 
pany of Americans of diversified types living for a 
time in England, with the adventures of a party of 
English travelling in the United States. She also 
wrote Shocking Sample and Beyond the Mountains, 
Miss Baylor's style is remarkably clear and grace- 
ful, and often enlivened by witty suggestions or 
remarks. 

Miss Mary Greenwood McClelland, a na- 
tive of Nelson County, Virginia, wrote Olivion, a 
story of the mountaineers of that State. In this 
book, with clever tact and delicacy, is described the 
daily life of these simple people, but in terms wom- 
anly and charming. From childhood romantic in 
disposition, her active mind, though having no child 
playmates, and removed from cities and much social 
intercourse, lived in a world of romance, with the 
characters in Walter Scott's novels as companions. 
Miss McClelland is said to have never spent a day 
in school, but was, however, indefatigable in pur- 
19 



2i6 AMERICAN LITERA TURE. [cHAB 

suing a systematic course of study. She wrote The 
Princess and The Self-made Man, At present her 
latest book is Ten Minutes to Twelve. 

37. The literary world was delighted with a 
book issued under the title Where the Battle was 
Fought^ as it was filled with graphic descriptions. 
It was fought on the homestead farm where Miss 
Mary Noailles Murfree was born, and near the 
village of Murfreesboro, which was founded by 
her paternal grandfather, Major Hardy Murfree, 
and named in his honor. The major had done 
good service in the Revolutionary War, which was 
recognized by the United States in bestowing upon 
him a large grant of public land in Tennessee. 
Thither he removed from North Carolina. 

Miss Murfree published her books under the as- 
sumed name '^ Charles Egbert Craddock," which 
name as an author she retains. Their home near 
Murfreesboro being broken up by the war, the 
family retired to their summer residence, known 
as " Murfree's Rock," a cottage built on a crag in 
the Tennessee mountains, and in the vicinity of 
Beersheba, a watering-place of a local reputation. 
From the piazza of this cottage is a magnificent 
prospect of mountains and intervening vales. Miss 
Murfree appreciated their beauties, and her mind 
became so imbued with impressions received, that 
m writing she seems unconsciously to revel in de- 
scriptions of natural scenery. Unfortunately, when 
a child a stroke of paralysis rendered her unable 
to walk, and as she could not ramble in the moun- 
tains, perhaps ^' distance lent enchantment to the 
view." In her writings is manifested a vigorous in- 
tellect. Miss Murfree has also written The Prophet 
of the Great Smoky Mountains^ In the Clouds^ In the 
''Stranger People s'' Cou?itry^ and others. 

Richard Malcolm Johnston was born March 
8, 1822, in Hancock County, Georgia, his ancestors 



X.] FROM 1647 TO 1895. 217 

having migrated thither from Virginia. His early 
education was limited to an "old field school," but 
when the family removed to the village of Powel- 
ton he was able to attend an excellent private 
school established by Salem Town, a native of 
Massachusetts. After graduation at Mercer Col- 
lege, and teaching for a time, he prepared himself 
for the bar and soon rose to eminence, and was 
appointed to a judgeship, which office he declined, 
but accepted a professorship of belles-lettres in the 
University of Georgia, to which in the meantime 
he had been elected. 

Previous to this. Professor Johnston had ac- 
quired a literary reputation by means of a number 
of stories in which were sketched to the life the 
peculiar characteristics of the " crackers " of his 
native State. The first of these series was The 
Dukesborough Tales, that being a collection of stories. 
In his journeyings through a number of counties 
as a practising lawyer, he was enabled to study this 
phase of the people of Georgia. A vein of pleas- 
ant but not unkind humor pervades his several 
writings. He published, among other stories. Old 
Mark Langs ton and The Two Gray Tourists. He 
also labored in more serious work in writing a 
History of Eiiglish Literature, and in connection 
with Professor W. H. Browne, of Johns Hopkins 
University, he wrote A Biography of Alexander H. 
Stephens. 

Z'^. Negro Folklore. — We now notice two 
writers who by their graphic stories have illustrated 
the dialects and general characteristics of the negro, 
both of which are found to be somewhat unlike in 
different portions of the South. These writers are 
Thomas Nelson Page, of Virginia, and Joel 
Chandler Harris, of Georgia. The former was 
born April 23, 1853, at Oaklands, Hanover County, 
Virginia; the latter, December 9, 1848, in the vil- 



2i8 AMERICAN LITERATURE. [chap. 

lage of Eatonton, Putnam County, Georgia. Page 
was a mere child when the Civil War commenced, 
and his home happened to be at the junction of 
two main roads leading to Richmond, and in con- 
sequence it was passed and repassed by hostile 
armies. During these troublous times his educa- 
tion was interrupted, but he read and enjoyed the 
Waverley novels. Meantime the exciting and pass- 
ing incidents of the period deeply impressed them- 
selves upon the boy's mind. During this time, 
and afterward, he was unconsciously but earnestly 
studying the peculiarities of the negro's character 
as they presented themselves in every-day life. 

After proper preparation he entered Washing- 
ton College, now Washington and Lee University. 
Here, his literary taste being recognized, he was 
elected by his fellows editor of the college maga- 
zine. After graduation he studied law, and ob- 
tained his degree from the University of Virginia, 
and commenced his legal practice in Richmond. 
Meanwhile Mr. Page's leisure moments were de- 
voted to literature in the form of short poems and 
stories, which found their way to the public through 
newspapers and magazines. These attracted the 
attention of editors as well as readers. He wrote 
Marse Chan^ but did not publish it for some time, 
when it was received with great favor. Then fol- 
lowed sketches descriptive of similar scenes, de- 
picting the traits of society in Virginia before and 
after the war, having as a background the rela- 
tions of master and the recent slave. The titles 
of these books indicate their contents, as Unc' 
Edinburgh s Drowndin\ Meh Lady^ and In Ole Vir- 
ginia. 

Mr. Harris has been virtually a journalist from 
his youth, for at the age of fourteen he began his 
apprenticeship in the office of The Country?nan^ a 
weekly paper published on an obscure plantation 



X.] FROM 1647 TO 1895. 219 

in Georgia. Like Benjamin Franklin, the youth 
soon began to express his opinions in articles which 
he composed while setting the type. The editor 
quietly encouraged the young man by loaning him 
useful books, but the latter was first stimulated to 
express his thoughts by the simple and clear style 
of the Vicar of Wakefield^ which his mother read 
to him when a child. 

Living in an isolated portion of Georgia, he 
became acquainted with the superstitions of the 
slaves, and with their songs, so full of expression to 
them, and their fables, or talks of animals, equal to 
Lucian's best. Prominent ^among the latter was 
Brer Rabbity who holds forth extensively. Mr. 
Harris first published Uncle Remus^ his Songs and 
Sayings, in a series of letters to the Atlanta Consti- 
tution j these were afterward issued in book form, 
and revealed to readers at home and in England 
a new and interesting phase of the plantation folk- 
lore among the negroes of the Southern States. 
Other books in the same line followed — A Rainy 
Day with Uncle Remus ^ and Nights with Uncle Remus. 
He also wrote sketches of the "crackers," or plain 
people living in middle Georgia, and of the moun- 
taineers and moonshiners, as in Mingo ^ and other 
Sketches^ and Free Joe a?id the Rest of the World. 
Mr. Harris deems these negro stories not genuine 
literature, and he significantly characterizes them 
as " stuff." One of his later books is On the Plan- 
tation. Mr. Harris has been on the editorial staff 
of the Atlanta Constitution for a number of years. 

39. The Outlook. — There are nearly five hun- 
dred recorded names of authors who have aided 
in creating an American literature. In a compen- 
dium so concise as this, though reluctantly, we 
must omit very many that are worthy of mention. 
There is, however, no more cheering feature for 
the American literature of the future than the in- 



220 AMERICA]^ LITER A TURE, [chap.'x. 

dications of a free and untrammeled spirit in tak- 
ing subjects from our own life and the scenery of 
our own land. Still more important will be the 
influence upon the people themselves, in turning 
their attention to their own country, and in their 
learning to appreciate it the more. We have not 
many traditions to weave into stories, but we have 
Nature in her freshness and beauty, and a pure do- 
mestic life moulded by freedom of thought. 



CHAP. I.] , QUESTIONS, 



QUESTIONS. 



221 



CHAPTER I. 
Sections i, 2. 

1. About what period does English literature begin ? 

2. Why may the English be proud of their literature ? 

3. Whence did the English come to Britain ? Give an account ot 
the struggles between them and the natives. 

4. What became of the literature of the native Britons ? 

5. To which belongs the tale of King Arthur ? 

6. Explain in what respect the earliest English tongue differed 
from the modern. Give the illustration. 

Sections 4 — 7. 

1. In what manner was Old English poetry written ? 

2. What is said of the length of lines .> Explain alliteration and 
accent. 

3. Give examples of archaic forms. 

4. Explain the parallelisms. When and how did a French system 
creep in ? 

5. Give a summary of the changes made. 

6. What are the characteristics of the Continental poetry ? 

7. What is said of the Song of the Traveller^ Deor'^s Complaint^ 
and Fight at Finnesburg ? 

8. Describe the Old English epic, Beowulf. Give its story. 

9. Explain wherein lies its social interest ; its poetic force. 

10. How does its spirit appear in modern poetry ? 

11. Quote the description of the dwelling-place of Grendel. 

Sections 7 — 10. 

1 . In what manner did Christianity modify English poetry ? 

2. How does the love of domestic life and of nature manifest 
itself ? 

3. What does Caedmon tell of Christian heroes ? 

4. Describe how the spirit of Woden was softened by that of 
Christ. 

5. Caedmon's poem proves what ? Who was Caedmon ? 

6. Tell the story of his life ; of his vision and his song. 

7. About what time was the poem written ? What were his sur- 
roundings ? 

8. Explain the poem ; show why it was a paraphrase, and of what ? 



222 ENGLISH LITERA TUkE. (chap. 

9. Point out the portions of the poem that contain the elements 
of poetry. 

10. What parts exhibit dramatic power ? .How does he compare 
with Milton ? 

11. Name the characteristics of English poetry from this time 
onward. 

12. Tell the story of Aldhelm and his songs ; his songs to the 
traders. 

13. Give a summary of the poem Judith ; what are its characteris 
tics. 

Sections 11, 12. 

1. What was the character of the poems of Cynewulf ? 

2. Name and describe his lyric pieces ; also his religious poems. 

3. Describe the translations in the Exeter and Vercelh books. 

4. Does their spirit in faith go beyond the grave .? 

5. Were war songs written in the monasteries ? 

6. Name the two war songs of that period, and their counter- 
parts in modern times ; name the authors of the latter. 

7. Describe the fight of ^thelstan and Anlaf. 

8. Give the story of the death of Brihtnoth. 

9. Why is the poem so English ? 

10. Explain why English war poetry for a time decayed ; what 
victory was won ? 

Sections 13 — 16. 

1. At what date and with whom does all English prose begin ? 

2. Name the subjects on which Bceda wrote, and his translation. 

3. Tell the incidents of his death. 

4. What invasion interfered with this literature in Northumbria ; 
and why ? 

5. Describe the influence of Alfred the Great on English litera- 
ture. 

6. How did he promote learning ? 

7. Mention the works he gave to the nation. 

8. Who after Alfred continued English schools and had transla- 
tions made ? 

9. Name the first translator of a portion of the Bible. 

10. How was this revival of literature cherished, and under whom 
revived ? 

11. Describe the English Chronicle; how long did it last ? 

12. What did it record, and what were its characteristics ? 

13. In whose reign did EngUsh poetry revive ? and in whose did 
English prose ? 

CHAPTER II., p. 22. 

Sections 17, 18. 

1. Name the length of time covered by this chapter. 

2. What effect on the English had the invasions of the Danes and 
the Normans ? 

3. Give the reasons why the English absorbed the invaders. 

4. Why did the Normans ally themselves with the English against 
• foreigners ? 



11.] QUESTIONS, . 223 

5. What was the effect on the English tong^ue ? 

6. What is said of the Moral Ode and the sayings of yT^lfred ? 

7. By what two works is the continuity of the English language 
at this time proved ? 

8. Under what three forms did English literature revive ? and in 
whose reign ? 

9. Explain why French literature influenced English poetry and 
not its prose. 

10. Into what classes did this poetical literature divide itself ? 

11. Between what two periods did religious poetry excel > 

12. What influenced English story- telling poetry to become the 
poetry of the Court ? 

13. What did Chaucer write that shows him the best example of 
story-telling } 

14. Describe the two struggles. What did England win ? 

15. How are we to trace the process of the change ? 

Sections 19, 20. 

1. Through whom was England's civilization increased ? 

2. Explain the influence of foreign nobles and monks upon the 
religious life of the people. 

3. What desire grew out of this influence ? 

4. Describe Ormin's Onnulum. What does it mark ? 

5. What is said of his ideal monk ? 

6. Designate the pieces that bring religious poetry to the year 
1300. 

7. Explain how the Normans and English were drawn more 
closely together. 

8. Show what class of books or poems were written. 

9. Name the translations made, and who by ? 

ID. Cursor Mundi : v.^hat its character, and its contents ? 

11. What prose work was translated ; what poem was written for 
the unlearned ? 

12. Describe the vision of Piers the Plowman. For what does he 
plead } 

Sections 21, 22. 

1. What literary taste was brought into England by the Normans ? 

2. How were its writers styled ? 

3. Show in what respect these writings were changed in char- 
acter. 

4. On what subjects did they write ? 

5. Who was the first writer, who the last, and what the time in- 
tervening ? 

6. When did historical literature again rise, and through whom ? 

7. What change of feeling took place among the Normans, and 
how were they interested in English literature ? 

8. Describe the influence of this welding of the two people to- 
gether. 

9. Give the substance of the stories told by the Welsh priest. 

10. How were they received ? Tell what grew out of them. 

11. Compare them with Idylls of the King. 

12. Tell the story of these legends coming back to England. 



224 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. [chap. 

Sections 23 — 25. 

1. Describe Layamon's Brut. What does he say of himself ? 

2. In what measure is it written ? How does it show change of 
language ? 

3. Name the stories translated from the French into the English. 

4. In what did story-telling become French in form ? 

5. How long before the romantic poetry became naturalized ? 
Under what circumstances ? 

6. What is meant by the Cycles of Romance ? 

7. Tell how King Arthur and the Round Table obtained their 
place in English literature. 

8. Give an account of Charlejnagne and his twelve peers. 

9. Explain the romantic fictions about Eskander. 

10. Show how the fourth romantic story came to be introduced 
into English literature. 

11. What other romances grew out of the taste thus formed ? 

12. In what two writers does the influence of this French school 
show itself } 

13. In what translation did it come to its height ? 

Sections 26 — 29. 

1. Describe English lyrics, idylls, and ballads. Tell the story ol 
Robin Hood. 

2. Give an outline of the idyll the Owl and Nightingale. 

3. With what were these tinged ? 

4. Give the substance of the satirical poem mentioned. 

5. What is said of political ballads and war songs ? 

6. Explain the struggles of the literary English language. 

7. When was English made the language of the courts of law ? 

8. Show how the Friars brought so many French words into the 
language. 

9. What is said of the older inflections, prefixes, and endings ? 

10. Give an account of the East Midland dialect, and its influence. 

11. What effect had the universities on the language } 

12. What is said of Wiclif's translation ? 

13. Name the two authors who "fixed the language" in a clear 
form. 

14. Why was it called the " King's English " ? 

15. Give the contrast between Wiclif and Langland. 

16. Explain the religious revival ; the influence of the Friars. 

17. Name another influence. Give the discussion on equal rights. 

18. Enumerate the causes that brought misery upon the people. 

Sections 30—33. 

1. Who wrote Piers the Plowman ? How does he describe him* 
self? 

2. Give an account of his vision ; its characters and their signifi- 
cance. 

3. Explain how he seeks a righteous life ; and his allegories. 

4. Describe the influence that his books exerted. 



III.] QUESTIONS, 225 

5. What translation did much to "fix " our language ? 

6. When accused, in what language did he defend himself ? 

7. What is said of his active life ? 

8. To what year does this work come ? 

9. Describe John Gower's influence as a story-teller. 

10. In what three languages were his books written ? What does 
that indicate ? 

11. Give a summary of what he taught in his English book. 

12. Relate the incident with Richard II. 

Sections 34 — 39. 

1. Give a sketch of Chaucer's life. 

2. Under what influence were his first two books written ? 

3. Explain the Italian influence on his poetry. 

4. What was the condition of Italian poetry at the time ? 

5. Whose tales did he read and translate } 

6. Notice the character of the changes he made in his trans- 
lations. 

7. Give a summary of the stories he wrote. 

8. Describe Chaucer's characters. 

9. State his definition of a gentleman. Note his love of Nature. 

10. Give an outline of the Canterbury Tales. 

11. What were pilgrimages in those days ? 

12. Of what do the Tales treat ? 

13. To what are his story and verse compared ? 

14. What elements did he weave into his English ? 

15. State the comparison drawn between Chaucer and Gower. 

16. Where in literature does Sir John Mandeville belong ? 



CHAPTER III., p. SO. 

Sections 40 — 43. 

1. To what point of time do Chaucer and Langland bring us ? 

2. What is said of Chaucer's influence ? 

3. Give a summary of the poems and other writings of John Lyd- 
gate. 

4. Notice the 7ninor poets of the period. 

5. What is said in respect to ballads and small poems ? 

6. Name the ballads sung by minstrels, and still known and found 
in books. 

Sections 44 — 46. 

1. Describe the controversy carried on by Pecock, Bishop of Chi- 
chester. 

2. Name the first theologian who wrote in English. 

3. What are the titles and character of the books written by Sir 
John Fortescue and Sir Thomas Malory ? 

4. Who was Caxton ? Give the title of the first book he printed. 

5. What effect was produced on the English language by his 
translations ? 

6. Give a summary of the influence of Caxton's publications. 

7. State the effect of the interest taken in classical literature. 



220 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

8. Describe the Paston Letters, 

9. What interest in books and libraries did some of the nobles 
take? 

10. Name the classics translated. 

11. Explain the effect on the Enghsh of the reviv^al of letters in 
Italy. 

12. By what means did the New Learning increase in England ? 

Sections 47, 48. 

1. Show the influence of Henry VIII. on prose literature. 

2. Trace the influence of Erasmus and Sir Thomas More. 

3. What is said of Eyiglish Reiiaissance ? 

4. Give an account of Roger Ascham's endeavors. 

5. What is said of Tyndale and his translation of the Bible ? 

6. Give a summary of the editions. Show the effect on the lan- 
guage. 

7. How did his translation reach America ? 

8. What was accomplished by Cranmer and Latimer ? 

Secti07is 49 — 51. 

1. Sketch the transition period from the old poets. 

2. Describe the Pastime of Pleasure by Stephen Hawes. 

3. What is said of the writings of John Skelton ? His satire or 
Wolsey ? 

4. What does he write against in Colin Clout ? 

5. Give an account of his other writings, and their influence. 

6. Explain his position in the transition. 

7. Define the Scottish poetry of the period. 

8. Give the outlines of Old Northumbria, and its history. 

9. Account for the peculiarities of Scottish poetry. 

10. Name and define its three characteristics. 

Sections 52 — 54. 

1. Compare the patriotism of the English and that of the Scotch. 
Show the influence. 

2. Account for the individuality of Scottish poetry. 

3. Describe The B7'uce. Give the story of James I. of Scotland 
and his writings. 

4. What is said of Robert Henryson's poems ? Whom did he 
imitate ? 

5. What influence did William Dunbar exert ? Show how. 

6. Name the translations of Gawin Douglas ; describe his writ- 
ings. 

7. Explain how Sir David Lyndsay was a poet and reformer. 

8. Describe his Satire of the Three Estates. Show his influence. 

Section 55. 

1. By whom was the Italian influence revived ? in whose reign ? 

2. What was the effect upon the English poets ? 

3. Give an outline of the poems of the " Amourists.^'' 



IV.] QUESTIONS. 227 

4. What is said of this style of verse ? 

5. What retarded the new impulse ? 

6. Name the period of English literature about to be ushered in. 



CHAPTER IV., p. 71. 

Sections 56 — 59. 

1. Enumerate the influences that led to the Elizabethan litera- 
ture. 

2. Give a summary of i\iQ first Elizabethan period, i. Prose. 2. 
Poetry. 3. Translations. 4. Theological reform. 5. Histories. 6. 
English tales. 7. Pageants and plays, how conducted. 8. Stories 
of voyagers. 9, Other writers. 

3. Give an account of the literature of the second period. 

4. Describe John Lyly's Euphues ; its contents and style ; its 
influence. 

5. What is said of Sir PhiHp Sidney's Arcadia^ and of the man 
himself ? 

6. The Arte of Poesie ; why written ? 

7. Name the other books on the subject. State their influence. 

Sections 60—63. 

1. Why was the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity written ? What are 
its merits ? 

2. Describe Lord Bacon's Essays. 

3. Tell of Hakluyt's voyages, etc. 

4. Trace the origin of English fiction. 

5. Give a sketch of Edmund Spenser, his youth and manhood. 

6. Notice the characteristics of the Shepheardes Calender. 

7. Give an outline of the contents of the Faerie QueeJt. What 
is the number of its parts ? 

8. Explain its influence on English poetry. 

9. Name and describe Spenser's minor poems. What is said of 
his later life ? 

Sections 64 — 67. 

1. Name the four prominent translators and their respective 
works. 

2. Tell of the influence of Italy, of Greece, and of France. 

3. Give in order a sketch of Elizabethan poetry, and show how it 
reflected the whole of English life. 

4. What is the character of Southwell's poems ? 

5. Give a summary of the love poetry of the time. 

6. What is stated of William Drummond } 

7. Explain how patriotic poets arose in England, and their influ" 
mce. 

8. Name the three chief poets of this class. 

9. Describe Albiofi's E?is;land^ and the subjects treated. 

10. Give an outline of Polyolbion. 

11. What changed the tone of this poetry ? 

12. Mention the causes that mark the change. 

2Q 



228 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 



Sections 68 — 74. 

1. Explain why the drama in England began in religion. 

2. Give the subjects of these plays in their order. 

3. Describe a " Miracle Play." What were " Mystery" represen- 
tations ? 

4. Explain what was intended to be taught in " the Morality." 

5. How is the transition traced from religious plays to the regular 
drama ? 

6. Tell of John Heywood. Describe his Interludes ; what grew 
out of them ? 

7. Name the sources from which these dramas were derived. 

8. Give a description of the first theatre and its accompaniments. 

9. In what metres were the plays written ? 

10. What was the number of the plays produced, and of the songs 
in them ? 

11. Give a summary of what was done by Lyly, Peele, Greene, 
and Marlowe. 

12. What were the characteristics of these dramas ? 

13. Describe the strange contrasts existing at the time. 

Sections 75 — 80. 

1. Give a sketch of Shakespeare; his domestic life; how he be- 
came a playwright. 

2. What is the theory in respect to his first play ? when written ? 

3. Trace his progress from " touching up " old plays till the time 
he composed them himself. 

4. Mention his first three plays ; give their peculiar features. 

5. State what is said of his historical plays. 

6. Name the plays written during his second period. 

7. What change came into his writings ? 

8. With whom was he popular, and in what respect ? 

9. Under what circumstances did he write Hamlet^ and other plays 
of his third period. 

10. Give a reason why in these he depicts the "darker sins of 
men.'' 

11. Give a sketch of his last plays ; with what spirit were they 
written ? 

12. Give a summary of his work. Explain the Epilogue to The 
Tempest. 

13. How is it visible how he was influenced ? 

Sections 81 — 85. 

1. In what respect did the drama decay ? 

2. What is the character of the plays of Ben Jonson ? 

3. What phase of human nature did they delineate ? 

4. Enumerate the plays he wrote. 

5. In what manner were the Masques written ? 

6. When did they attain their highest popularity ? 

7. Give the traits of Beaumont and Fletcher as writers. 

8. Describe Massinger as a writer. To what extremes did he go ? 



v.] QUESTIONS. 229 

9. Mention what is said of John Webster's manner of expression. 

10. Who was the last of the Elizabethan dramatists ? 

11. Give an account of the strolling players. 

12. With what " opera " began the new drama ? 



CHAPTER v., p. 108. 

Sections 86 — 89. 

1. Describe the change in prose literature after Elizabeth's death. 

2. In what consisted the new type of poetry ? 

3. The Advancement of Learning ; what impulse did it give ? 

4. What good work had science done ? 

5. Mention the historical literature of the time. 

6. What is said of Sir Walter Raleigh ? and other historians ? 

7. Name what subjects miscellaneous literature touched upon. 

8. Give an account of the religious literature. 

9. What is said of the founding of libraries ? 

10. Of theology — as represented by Jeremy Taylor and Richard 
Baxter ; Chillingworth and John Milton ? 

11. Describe the style of writing during this time. 

Sections 90 — 95. 

1. Name the element that pervaded the poetry at the time. 

2. When did this spirit become less ? Give the illustration. 

3. Explain in what manner the fantastic style grew up. 

4. Describe the lyric poetry during the Civil War. 

5. Of what did the songs and epigrams treat } When did they 
change ? 

6. Give a sketch of the satirical poetry of this period. 

7. Explain how pastoral poetry arose. 

8. Contrast rural with town poetry. 

9. What is said of the imitation of Spenser by certain writers ? 

10. Describe the religious poetry of George Herbert and Henry 
Vaughan, 

11. Name the other poets; some Roman Catholic and some 
Puritan. 

12. What is said of the position of John Dryden > 

Sections 96 — loi. 

1. John Milton. Describe his youth; his university life; his 
studies at Horton. 

2. When did he visit Italy ? Why did he return to England ? 

3. Why did he write scarcely any poetry for twenty years ? 

4. Give an account of his controversial pamphlets and their influ- 
ence. 

5. What are the leading characteristics of Paradise Lost ? 

6. Explain the beauty of the poem ; its ideal purity ; the degrada 
tion of Satan ; and the sad image in the closing lines. 

7. Paradise Regained. What are its characteristics ? 

8. y^\idX\)[i^Xt.diQh\\\^va. Samson. Agonistes? 

9. Point out the traits of mind that Milton exemphfies. 



230 ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

10. Give a summary of Milton's poetic force and taste. 

11. Pilgrim's Progress. What is its spirit, and of what does it 
treat ? 

12. Account for this book still living in literature. 

13. Why is it the language of the EngUsh people ? 



CHAPTER VI., p. 12s. 
Sections 102 — 104. 

1. Explain the change that occurred in the style of poetry. 

2. Why d3 certain poets write in a natural style ? 

3. When national life grows chill, what effect is produced ? 

4. Account for Milton's influence on style. 

5. Describe the other influences mentioned. 

6. The Elizabethan poets wrote on what subject ? How was it 
treated ? 

7. How did Dryden and Pope treat man ? 

8. Give an account of the transition poets. What new interest 
was rising ? 

v^. Contrast the two famous satires of this period. Describe each. 

Sections 105 — 107. 

1. Explain how Dryden became the introducer of a new school of 
poetry. 

2. In what way is his change of opinions accounted for ? 

3. Give an epitome of his satire of Absalom and Ahitophel ; of 
the Hind and Panther ; and of his Religio Laid. 

4. What is said of his fables and translations ? 

5. The influence of Bishop Ken, how used ? 

6. Name the society founded ; give a summary of the sciences it 
was designed to promote. 

7. Mention the discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton. 

8. To what kind of kaowledge was the intellectual inquiry of the 
Nation directed ? Explain the two sides taken. 

9. Give a summary of the theological literature of the period. 

10. Mention the names of the preachers and writers in the contro- 
versy in relation to Atheism and Deism. 

Sectiojts 108— no. 

1. Give an outline of the discussion on the science of government 
and social questions. 

2. From what point did Hobbes discuss these questions ? 

3. State the positions maintained in his Leviathan. 

4. Give an outline of the arguments on both sides. 

5. What science was for the first time partially treated ? 

6. John Locke. State his three positions in his Civil Government, 

7. How did he carry the same spirit into another realm of thought ? 

8. What is said of his Essay on the Humait Understanding f 

9. Sketch the miscellaneous literature of the time. 

10. Name the authors \ describe the essays, letter-writing, etc. 



VII.] QUESTIONS, 231 

Sections iii — 114. 

1. Give an account of the literature known as that of Queen Anne 
and the first Georges. 

2. What opinions gave rise to it, and where was it concentrated ? 

3. Who were the Whigs and who the Tories ? 

4. Describe this party literature, and its effect upon pure liter- 
ature. 

5. Name the subjects discussed ; what was the influence on the style 
of English prose ? 

6. Alexander Pope. Give a sketch of his life and a summary of 
his writings ; their design and effect. 

7. Describe the Moral Essays^ the Essay on Man^ the Satires^ and 
the Epistles, 

8. What is said of his translations, and his love of literature ? 

9. Of the minor poets what is said } Give a summary of their 
songs and ballads. 

10. What impulse rang the knell of criticism ? 

Sections 115 — 118. 

1. Give the four great names in prose literature at this time. 

2. What is said of each one and his writings ? 

3. Describe Bishop Butler's great work. 

4. Metaphysical literature. T\iQ, Minute Philosopher ; wA\z.\.6\di\\. 
teach ? 

5. The Fable of the Bees ; tried to prove what ? 

6. Periodical essays ; their design ? Of what did the Tatler treat ? 

7. What is said of the Spectator ? The Guardian ? 

8. Their influence on the people ? Who were the principal writers ? 

9. In the drama, what new form was introduced ? 

10. From whom did the dramatic writers sometimes borrow ? 

11. What is said of the influence of Dryden on the drama? 

12. In what form did the dramatists succeed ? 

13. How was the drama partially purified ? 

14. Of what was the stage made a vehicle ? 

15. How long did the influence of the Restoration on the drama 
last? 

16. With whom does the elder English drama close ? 



CHAPTER VIL, p. 14S. 

Sections 119 — 121. 

1. With the rapid increase of what is paralleled the growth of 
Hterature ? 

2. Give the four causes of this literary progress. 

3. What is said of the efl"ect of a good style ? And also of the 
long peace ? 

4. Show the influence of the Press on the literature of the period. 

5. What right did the Press claim and obtain ? 

[Note : The freedom of the Press was established in New York 



232. ENGLISH LITERATURE. [chap. 

thirty-seven years before this. See Patton's *' Concise History of the 
American People," p. 221.] 

6. Explain the influence on English literature of French authors 
and German writers. 

7. Tell the story of Samuel Johnson. 

8. Give an account of his writings, and show their influence. 

9. What is said of Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, and Sir 
Joshua Reynolds ? 

10. Who originated the modern novel ? Define the novel. 

11. What field does it occupy for its subjects ? 

12. Give the characteristics of each of these authors. 

Sections 12,2.^ 123. 

1. Mention the first three prominent English historians. 

2. Give the titles of their histories, and the characteristic of each 
as to style. 

3. Name in order the merits and defects of each. 

4. Explain David Hume's theory of philosophy. 

5. Define what he means by his measure of virtue, and the influ- 
ence of the theory. 

6. Name his works in their order ; what may be inferred from the 
last two ? 

7. Give the theory of the Wealth of Nations. What questions 
were involved ? 

8. Enumerate the effects of industry from 1720 to 1770. 

9. Give an account of the Social Reform ; its influence on litera- 
ture and on popular education. 

10. What are the characteristics of Edmund Burke's speeches and 
writings ? 

11. Show their literaiy merits and defects ; account for their in- 
fluence. 

Sections 124 — 129. 

1. What city had become a literary centre ? 

2. State the effects of the doctrines of the French Revolution. 

3. Explain the influence of the great journals. 

4. Give a summary of the means used to educate the people. 

5. Name the Reviews and Magazines ; tell how they grew up. 

6. What made them a power .> 

7. What literature received an impulse from the Wesleys and 
George Whitfield ? 

8. Name the writers on the evidences of Christianity. 

9. Mention the names of the Scotch mental philosophers. 

10. What was the influence of Aids to Reflection ? 

11. What was put forth by Jeremy Bentham ? 

12. Give what is said on books of travel. 

13. Explain the position of historical literature. 

14. Sum up what is said of the novel of this period. 

15. Give a sketch of each of Walter Scott's novels. 



VIII.] QUESTIONS, 233 

CHAPTER VIII., p. 158. 

Sections 130 — 133. 

1. Give an outline of the two periods of poetry to be studied. 

2. State the influence of didactic and satirical poetry. 

3. Show the effect of the Greek and Latin classics in forming a 
more artistic poetry. 

4. What was the result of a careful study of the older English 
authors ? 

5. State the new element introduced ; give examples of the nar- 
rative, ballad, and romance. 

6. Cite Ossian and Chatterton. 

7. What reaction took place, and how } 

8. Give the criticism on the style of poetry from Elizabeth to 
George I. 

9. On what two subjects have poets always worked ? 

10. Explain how man in connection with Nature furnishes sub- 
jects to the poets. 

11. Account for the change to natural description. 

12. Describe Thomson's Seasons ; what was its influence ? 

13. How did descriptions of natural scenery come to be interwoven 
with reflections on human life ? 

14. What influence had foreign travel on the love of Nature ? 

15. Instance Goldsmith and Collins. 

16. What is said of the Minstrel ? What does the story resemble ? 

Sections 134 — 138. 

1. State how a change of subject began ; the individual man. 

2. Mention the various ways in which the poor were introduced 
into poetry. 

3. Give the titles of poems bearing on man as a subject. 

4. Scottish poetry ; describe the Gentle Shepherd. 

5. State what is said of the ballad in Scotland. 

6. Name the three poets of the second period of the new poetry. 

7. State the features of William Blake's poetry. 

8. Describe Cowper's poems. What element did he introduce ? 

9. What are the links that connect him with different periods of 
poetry > 

10. How did he regard the brotherhood of man ? 

11. This led to poems on what questions ? 

12. Give a summary of the wonderful change. 

13. How are we brought face to face with the pictures of life in 
the poems of Crabbe ? 

14. Compare him with Cowper. 

15. Describe the Farmer's Boy and the Rural Tales ; what was the 
influence of this style of poetry ? 

16. Who afterward took it up and added new features ? 

Sections 139, 140. 

1. Name the element restored to poetry by Robert Burns. 

2. Why did he sing of the poor ? Notice the dates of the three poets. 



234 ENGLISH LITERATURE, [chap. 

3. Account for human sympathy leading these three poets to hava 
tenderness for animals. 

4. State what is specially marked in Burns. 

5. What spoiled his life ? 

6. What is said of the ideas brought into view by the French 
Revolution in respect to man ? 

7. Explain the inJEiuence of these ideas of man's equality, and tha 
reaction upon Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, and Walter Scott. 

Sections 141 — 144, 

1. What is said of Southey ? What of Coleridge ? 

2. Mention the influence on the latter of the defection of France. 

3. Name the principal poems of Southey. 

4. State the opinion in respect to the beauty of Coleridge's poetry. 

5. Describe Wordsworth's youth and training. 

6. In what way were the lyrical ballads published ? 

7. What is said of the Prelude and the lixcursion ? 

8. How in accordance with his views was Nature in harmony with 
man ? 

9. Account for his minute observation of Nature. 

10. Show how he came to honor man as a part of the being of 
Nature. 

11. State his disappointment ; his hatred of oppression. 

12. Give the subjects of a series of his sonnets. 

13. Account for his being truly a poet of mankind. 

14. State what criticism must confess. Wherein is he like Milton ? 

Sections 145—147. 

1. Mention the three famous narrative poems of Walter Scott. 

2. What is said of his lyrics ? Describe how he represents land- 
scape in his word-painting. 

3. Analyze Campbell's Pleasures of Hope, What are his promi- 
nent poems ? 

4. Describe the Pleasures of Memory. 

5. Why is there no trace of the civil commotions of Europe found 
in the poetry of Rogers ? 

6. What are the characteristics of the poetr}' of Thomas Moore ? 

7. Name the underlying subject of his songs. 

Sections 148 — 150. 

1. Who were the post-revolution poets ? 

2. What is said of Childe Harold and other poems of Byron ? 

3. Give an analysis of his dramas, and of his life. 

4. For what purpose did he seem to write narrative poetry ? De* 
scribe Cain. 

5. Why did he write in opposition to social morality ? 

6. Describe him as a poet of Nature. 

7. Analyze his great power. 

8. What is the prominent idea in Shelley's Queen Mab ? 

9. Explain the poem Alastor. 

10. What are the sentiments expressed in the Revolt of Islam f 



VIII.] QUESTIONS. 235 

11. Explain why his poetry became more masculine. 

12. What is represented in Prometheus Unbound ? State its ideas. 

13. Describe the Cenci and Adonais. 

14. How does Shelley's view of Nature compare with that of 
Wordsworth ? 

15. What was the character of his later poetry ? 

Sections 151, 152. 

1. Draw a parallel between Shelley and Keats. 

2. For what reason did Keats go to Greek and mediaeval life foi 
subjects 1 

3. Describe his style. What does he mark in modet-n English 
poetry ? 

4. Of what impulse does Keats mark the exhaustion ? 

5. Tell why indifferent thought was expressed in pleasant verse. 

6. State the effect of the reform agitation, and the religious move- 
ment at Oxford. 

7. What is said of Mr. and Mrs. Browning ? 

8. Give the characteristics of the former's sympathies. 

9. What is said of Tennyson's Idylls ? 

10. Describe the new class of literary poets. 

11. Compare in time Tennyson's //ar<?/^ (1877) with Csedmon's 
Paraphrase (about 670). 



23t AMERICAN LITERATURE. [chap- 



QUESTIONS. 



CHAPTER TX. 

Sections i, 2. 

1. Upon what depends the success of literature ? 

2. What its theory, and should be its influence ? 

3. Name the advantages the colonists brought with them. To 
what did these lead ? 

4. When were public schools established ? What instance does it 
mark ? 

5. Describe the practice, and state the result. 

6. How was the literature of the Colonial period influenced ? 

7. Explain why that literature had little effect on the present. 

Sections 3 — 5. 

1. Give an account of Jonathan Edwards. Name the books he 
wrote. 

2. What is said of the last one mentioned ? 

3. On what literature has his influence been marked ? 

4. Name the works of Timothy Dwight. How written. What 
their influence. 

5. Give the story of Benjamin Franklin. 

6. State his efforts in behalf of education, economy, and literature. 

7. Explain how he showed his practical wisdom. 

Sections 6 — 8. 

1. State how a change took place in the literature of that period. 

2. Name those who took part in these discussions. 

3. What is the character of their writings, and those of George 
Washington ? 

4. Give an account of the Federalist. How did it accomplish it3 
work ? 

5. Explain why newspapers and journalists increased in numbers. 

6. How long did the influence of the latter continue ? 

7. State what the American writers of this period did for them- 
selves. 

8. Why did the people begin to read more on general subjects ? 

Sections 9, 10. 

1. Who was the harbinger in the field of American romance ? 

2. Describe him as an author. What the character of his wri- 
tings ? 



IX.;; QUESTIONS. 237 

3. He was the first American author to do what ? 

4. Who followed in this field ? With what success ? 

5. What elaborate work did he also write ? 

6. Why were Cooper's novels so popular ? 

7. Who stands preeminent in American literature ? 

8. In what consists the charm of Irving's writings ? 

9. Give a summary of his works. 

10. Who, as writers, were Irving's contemporaries ? 

11. After what was the Salmagundi modelled ? 

12. Name the chief work of Drake and its characteristic. 

Sections 11, 12. 

1. Explain the cause of different theological opinions. 

2. Describe the noted controversy. Where was its centre ? 

3. Give a sketch of Channing. 

4. What organs were established ? What is said of their readers ? 

5. Name the other parties drawn into this controversy. 

6. In what two respects is our historical literature noted ? 

7. Name the authors who treat of foreign countries. Give a 
summary of their works. 

8. Name the authors of United States histories. What period 
do they cover ? 

p. What is said of the school histories and one other ? 
10. Give a summary of Jared Sparks's writings. 

Sectio7i 13. 

1. In what respect can we compare the poetry of America with 
that of England ? 

2. Describe the characteristics of the poetry of Bryant. 

3. What translations has he made ? 

4. State the literary career of Longfellow. 

5. What desirable qualities are found in his writings ? 

6. Explain the popularity of his works. 

7. How has Whittier been characterised ? What the influence of 
his poetry ? 

8. Give a sketch of the two writers — Holmes and Lowell. 

9. Name their writings. 

Sections 14 — 17. 

I. What is said of the hosts of writers ? 
) 2. Where are the readers found ? How do they apply the 
thoughts of others ? 

3. Describe the luxury and the result. 

4. State how an impulse has been given to literature. 

5. Explain the features of these literary times. 

6. W^hat is said of woman as a writer ? 

7. Give a sketch of the literature of the newspaper. 

8. Name the advantages derived from the notices of books. 

9. State what is said of miscellaneous writers. 



23S AMERICAN LITERATURE, [chap. 

Sections i8, 19. 

1. Describe the influence of political discussions on literature. 

2. Name the men of a brilliant period. 

3. Give a summary of the contrast. 

4. What is said of the agitation ? 

5. Explain in what respect our literature is rich. 

6. Describe the influence of the essayists. 

7. What has been the effect of popular lectures ? 

8. Name the authors in this class. Their writings. 

Section 20. 

1. Give a sketch of Hawthorne's style, and name his writings. 

2. What is said of Simms's works and of himself } 

3. Why was Uncle Tom's Cabin so popular } 

4. Name Mrs. Stowe's other books. 

5. State what is said of Stoddard's literar}^ labours. 

6. Name Stedman's writings. Why does he stand high as a 
critic "> 

7. Of what kind of writing was the civil war an occasion ? 

8. Describe Bayard Taylor as an author. 

9. Explain the novelty of the writings of Joaquin Miller and 
Bret Harte. 

10. Give a description of J. G. Saxe's poetry. 

Section 22. 

1. What is said of Jim Bludso ? How has the author been com* 
plimented ? 

2. State what is said of the stories and poems of T. B. Aldrich. 

3. Describe the author of Sevenoaks as a writer and editor. 

4. What advantage has the author of the Circuit Rider m his 
subjects > 

5. Explain the secret of the popularity of his writings. 

6. From what class of subjects does Howells derive his scenes ? 

7. Describe his style and manner. Name his writings. 

8. Give an account of the two authors. Name their writings. 

9. What is said of the writings of E. E. Hale and T. W. Higgin- 
son .> 

10. Explain the charm of Charles Dudley Warner's writings 

Sections 2;^, 24. 

1. What is said of female writers ? What may be termed their 
field? 

2. Name Mrs. Whitney's writings and Miss Alcott's. 

3. State the character of Mrs. Ward's style and writings. 

4. What is said of Mrs. Spofford and Mrs. Burnett as to theii 
novels ? 

5. Describe the writings of E. P. Roe and Mrs. Prentiss as to 
their purpose. 

6. What literature has grown up recently ^ 



x.j _ QUESTIONS, 239 

Sections 25, 26. 

1. What is said of Biblical learning and systematic theology- ? 

2. Name the work of Professor Robinson. State its influence. 

3. Name those who have engaged in Biblical interpretation. 

4. Give the authors and titles of works written as collateral with 
Biblical learning. 

5. Name the authors and their works en Church history. 

Sectio7is 27, 28. 

I. Give the titles of the works on jurisprudence and international 

law. Name the authors. 

2., Upon what other subjects have many American authors written ? 

3. Give a summary of the outlook. 

CHAPTER X. 

Sections 29, 30. 

1. What is sa'd of Mr. Crawford's education ? 

2. Nanie his hrit two boDks, and state the scenes they describe. 

3. \V hat are the titles of his othzr books } 

4. NaTie the titles and chaiacteribtics of the two prominent books 
of Mr. Wallace. 

5. What is said of the traits of Mr. Carleton's writings ? 

Sections 31, 2,'^. 

1. Give the subjects. 

2. Name the titles of the books written by Dr. McCosh ; by Pro- 
fessors Ladd, Shields, Schaff, Shedd, Vincent, and Briggs. 

Section 2>2i* 

1. Name the writers who illustrate Creole folklore. 

2. What are their respsc'Jve characteristics ? 

3. Explain how they became versed in the subjects on which they 
rote. 

Section 34. 

1. Who were the two Virginians ? 

2. What is said of the mental training of Miss Rives ? 

3. Trace the effect upon her writings. 

4. What was her mode of composing ? 

5. State the traits of character that Miss Magruder describes. 

Section 35. 

1. What is saM of the anc3stors of these now illiterate people ? 

2. Their origin and religious faith ? The Mecklenburg Conven- 
|tion ? 

3. The spirit of slavery -how manifested ? 

4. The future effects cf public schools ? 

5. Who were tlie governing class ? 

21 



240 AMERICAN LITERA TURE. [chap. x. 

6. How were these people stigmatized ? 

7. Repeat the remark of Mr. W. G. Simms. 

8. State why our literature is becoming national. 

Sections 36, 37. 

1. What is said of Miss Baylor ? 

2. Give an outline of On Both Sides. Miss Baylor's style. 

3. Give an account of Miss McClelland's youth, and of Olivion. 

4. State the history of Miss Murfree's first book. 

5. Under what name does she write ? 

6. What is said of her descriptions of natural scenery ? 

7. Name the titles of her books. 

8. Give an outline of the } outh and education of Professor John 
ston. 

9. What class of the Georgia people does he specially describe ? 

Sections 38, 39. 

1. Give a sketch of the two delineators of negro folklore. 

2. Describe their training in that line of study. 

3. Name the titles of the books written by Mr. Page. What do 
they indicate ? 

4. In what way did Mr. Harris become familiar with the notions 
and dialects of the negroes ? 

5. Describe the stories of Uncle Remus, 

6. The outlook : what is said of it ? 



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A manual of English Literature containing typical selections 
from the be«;t British and American authors, with biograph- 
ical and critical sketches, portraits, and facsimile autographs. 
By Geo. R. Cathcart. 
Cloth, leather back, i2mo. 541 pages . . $1.15 



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American Literature 

BY 

MILDRED CABELL WATKINS 
Flexible Cloth, i8mo. 224 Pages. Price, 35 Cems 



The eminently practical character of this work will at once 
commend it to all who are interested in forming and guiding 
the literary tastes of the young, and especially to teachers who 
have long felt the need of a satisfactory text book in American 
literature which will give pupils a just appreciation of its 
character and worth as compared with the literature of other 
countries In this convenient volume the story of American 
literature is told to young Americans in a manner which is at 
once brief, simple and graceful, and, at the same time, impress- 
ive and intelligible. Some of its leading features are: 

The authors are grouped in systematic order and classes. 

Living writers, including minor authors, are given their 
proper share of attention. 

A brief summary is appended to each chapter to aid the 
memory in fixing the salient facts of the narrative. 

Numerous select extracts from our greatest writers are given 
in their proper connection. 



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An Introduction 

TO THE STUDY OF 

American Literature 

By BRANDER MATTHEWS 

Professor of Literature in Columbia Uriiversity 

Cloth, 12mo, 256 pages - - - Price, $1.00 



A text-book of literature on an original plan, and conforming 
with the best methods of teaching. 

Admirably designed to guide, to supplement, and to stimu- 
late the student's reading of American authors. 

Illustrated with a fine collection of facsimile manuscripts, 
portraits of authors, and views of their homes and birthplaces. 

Bright, clear, and fascinating, it is itself a literary work of 
high rank. 

The book consists mostly of delightfully readable and yet 
comprehensive little biographies of the fifteen greatest and most 
representative American writers. Each of the biographical 
sketches is illustrated by a fine portrait of its subject and views 
of his birthplace or residence and in some cases of both. They 
are also accompanied by each author's facsimile manuscript 
covering one or two pages. The work is rounded out by four 
general chapters which take up othe'r prominent authors and 
discuss the history and conditions of our literature as a whole, 
and there is at the end of the book a complete chronology of 
the best American literature from the beginning down to 1896. 



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Mythology 



Guerber's Myths of Greece and Rome 

Cloth, i2ino. 428 pages. Illustrated . . $1.50 

Guerber's Myths of Northern Lands 

Cloth, i2mo. 319 pages. Illustrated . . $1.50 

Guerber's Legends of the Middle Ages 

Cloth, i2mo. 340 pages. Illustrated . . $1.50 

By H. A. GUERBER, Lecturer on Mythology 

These companion volumes present a complete outline of 
Ancient and Mediaeval Mythology, narrated with special refer- 
ence to Literature and Art. They are uniformly bound in 
cloth, and are richly illustrated with beautiful reproductions of 
masterpieces of ancient and modem painting and sculpture. 

While primgrily designed as manuals fr)r the use of classes in 
schools where Mythology is made a regular subject of study 
and for collateral and supplementary reading in classes studying 
literature or criticism, they are equally well suited for private 
students and for home reading. For this purpose the myths 
are told in a clear and charming style and in a connected naiia- 
tive without unnecessary digressions. To show the wonderful 
influence of these ancient myths in literature, numerous and 
appropriate quotations from the poetical writings of all ages, 
from Hesiod's ** Works and Days" to Tennyson's " CEnone," 
have been included in the text in connection with the descrip- 
tion of the different myths and legends. 

Maps, complete glossaries and indexes adapt the manuals 
for convenient use in Schools, Libraries or Art Galleries. 



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Composition and Rhetoric 



Butler's School English 

Cloth, i2mo. 272 pages 75 cents 

A brief, concise and thoroughly practical manual for use in 

connection with the written English work of Secondary Schools. 

It has been prepared specially to secure definite results in the 

study of English, by showing the pupil how to review, criticise 

and improve his ov/n writing. 

Quackenbos's Practical Rhetoric 

Cloth, i2mo. 477 pages $1.00 

This book develops, in a perfectly natural manner, the laws 
and piinciples which underlie rhetorical art, and then shows 
their use and application in the different processes and kinds 
of composition. It is clear, simple, and logical in its treatment 
throughout, original in its departure from technical rules and 
traditions, copiously illustrated with examples for practice, and 
calculated to awaken interest and enthusiasm in the study. A 
large part of the book is devoted to instruction and practice in 
actual composition work, in which the pupil is encouraged to 
follow and apply genuine laboratory methods. 

Waddy's Elements of Composition and Rhetoric 

Cloth, i2mo. 416 pages $1.00 

A complete course in Composition and Rhetoric, with copious 
exercises in both criticism and construction. It is inductive in 
method, lucid in style, orderly in arrangement, and clear and 
comprehensive in treatment. Sufficiently elementary for the 
lower grades of High School Classes and complete enough for 
all Secondary Schools. 



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General History 



/ppletons' School History of the World 

By John D. Quackenbos, A.M. Cloth, i2mo. 492 pp. $1.22 
A comprehensive history of the world, written in a clear 

and interesting style, and copiously illustrated. 

Barnes's Brief General History of the World 
By J. Dorman Steele and Esther B. Steele. 
Cloth, i2mo. 642 pages . . . . . $1 60 
A complete history of ancient, mediaeval and modern peoples, 

as interesting to the general reader as it is valuable as a text- 

bDok. This work is one of the best known and most widely 

used text-books on the subject. 

Fisher's Brief History of the Nations 

And of Their Progress m Civilization. By George Park 

Fisher, LL.D. Cloth, i2mo. 613 pages. With numerous 

Illustrations, Maps, Tables, and reproductions of Bas- 

Reliefs, Portraits and l^aintings . . . . $1.50 

This is an entirely new work, specially prepared to meet the 

needs of High School students and general readers. It presents 

in compact form a graphic and impressive delineation of human 

progress from the earliest historical period down to the present 

time. 

Swinton's Outlines of the World's History 
By Wm. Swinton. Revised Edition. 

Cloth, i2mo. 510 pages . . . . . $1.44 
A work on ancient, mediaeval and modern history, with 

special reference to the history of civilization and the progress 

of mankind. 

Thalheimer's General History 

By M. E. Thalheimer. Revised Edition. 
Cloth, i2mo. 448 pages . . . . . $1.20 
These outlines of General History aim to combine brevity 
with a clear and simple narrative. The large number of sketch 
and colored maps and apposite illustrations constitute an im- 
portant feature of the book. 



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Ancient, Mediaeval 

and Modern History 



Barnes's Brief History cf Ancient Peoples 

Cloth, i2mo. 330 pages $1.00 

Being the same as the first half of Barnes's General History 

of the World. 

Barnes's Brief History of Modern Peoples 

Cloth, i2mo. 314 pages. With maps and illustrations, $100 
Being the same as the last half of Barnes's General History 

of the World, and comprising the period from the fall of Rome 

to the present time. 

Thaiheimer's Manual of Ancient History 

Cloth, 8vo. 376 pages $1.60 

A manual of ancient history from the earliest times to the 
fall of the Western Empire. I'he book is also issued in three 
parts : — 
Part I., Eastern Empires, 80 cents. 

Fart II., History of Greece, 80 cents. 

Part III., History of Rome, 80 cents. 

Thaiheimer's Mediaeval and Modern History 

Cloth, 8vo. 480 pages. 12 double-page maps . $1.60 
A sketch of fourteen centuries, conveying by a simple narra- 
tion of events, an impression of the continuity of the civil 
history of Europe. 

Barnes's Brief History of Rome 

Cloth, i2mo. 316 pages . . . . . $1.00 

With select readings from standard authors, on the plan of 

Brief History of Greece. 

Barnes's Brief History of Greece 

Cloth, i2mo. 201 pages . . . . .75 cents 

This consists of two parts : i, the chapters on the political 

history and the civilization of Greece in Barnes's Brief History 

of Ancient Peoples ; and 2, a number of appropriate selections 

from the works of famous historians. 



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Physical Geography 



Appletons' Physical Geography 

By John D. Quackenbos, John S. Newberry, Charles H. 
Hitchcock, W. Le Conte Stevens, Wm. H. Dall, Henry 
Gannett, C. Hart Merriam, Nathaniel L. Britton, George 
F. Kunz and Lieut. Geo. M. Stoney. 

Cloth, 4to. 140 pages $1.60 

Richly illustrated with engravings, diagrams and maps in 

color, and including a special chapter on the geological history 

and the ])hysical features of the United States. 

Cornell's Physical Geography 

Boards, 4to. 104 pages ..... $I.I2 
A revised edition, bringing the work in all respects up to date. 

Eclectic Physical Geography 

By Russell Hinman. Cloth, i2mo. 382 pages . $1.00 
A new work in a convenient form, in which Physical Geog- 
raphy is cleaily treated in the light of recent investigations. 
The text is fully illustrated with nu];nerous charts, maps, cuts, 
and diagrams clearly and accurately drawn. 

Guyot's Physical Geography 

By Dr. Arnold Guyot. Cloth, 4to. 124 pages . $i.6o 
A standard work by one of the ablest of modern geographers, 

thoroughly revised and supplied with newly engraved, maps, 

illustrations, etc. 

Monteith's New Physical Geography 

Cloth, 4to. 144 pages . . . . . $1.00 

A new and comprehensive work. The topical arrangement 

of subjects adapts it for use in grammar giades as well as for 

higher schools. 



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